Finishing BOW

[woodwish]

I think this has been covered before but I can't find the thread. Finally scored some nice Bethlehem Olice Wood (BOW) to make some gifts for some special friends. Made some pens and bottle stoppers and used my favorite finish on the first few pieces, wipe-on poly by Minwax. Two coats on but still sticky a week later. Set those aside and used some spray poly on some other pieces, it won't dry either. Thought about using some lacquar-based sanding sealer or shellac-based sanding sealer. Neither is very durable but maybe I can use the wipe-on poly over the sanding sealer. Any thoughts here? How do any of you finish BOW? Thought about CA finish on the pens but I have not had good luck with it.

Really want to finish these so I can give them away soon. Even thought about just buffing but now I have to get the poly off the few pieces I have already finsihed. Any suggestions here?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Polyurethane varnish does not do well over woods that are not thoroughly seasoned and even then, some woods with a high oil content will never do well. Eastern red cedar is one of those woods where poly will remain gummy forever. I built a cedar blanket chest and applied a couple coats of super blonde dewaxed shellac (1 lb. cut) as a base coat before applying the poly finish. I thinned the poly 50-50 with naptha so that I could get a good self-leveling wipe-on finish and used about six coats. The results have been excellent with no problem after about six years, so the answer seems to be that a shellac base coat will work fine, but thin it so that it will penetrate the wood. A word of warning: do not use poly on the inside of anything where the oils in the wood may present a problem -- even with a shellac base coat, the poly will forever remain gummy. Personally, I am not a fan of polyurethane on turned items because it seems to always highlight pores in the wood, has a lot of glare, and makes minor imperfections stand out like a sore thumb.

Bill