I've been turning bowls for about four years, all in Arizona in the winter (Canadian snowbird). Due to health issues we sold everything we had in AZ and spend winters at home in Ontario now. I really miss the big wood shop in AZ which had a lots of turners and lots of mentors. I built a shop in my house and I now belong to an AAW chapter called Thames Valley Woodturners Guild in London. All that is pretty exciting. The guild has a mentor program which I have used and made a great connection with a guy who has been doing this for 40 years and knows all the tools and techniques.
The shop in AZ had its customs and most of the turners used Mylands sanding sealer and Mylands high friction build finish. They have worked OK for me but I have a feeling I would get better results changing things up. I would prefer not to finish on the lathe and while the Mylands had the virtue of quick, finishing time is no longer of the essence to me and I have lots of patience for taking a week or more to do finishing. I have a buddy who is into cutting boards and I asked him how he finishes. He uses Watco Butcher Block finish without applying a sealer. So I thought I would give that a try and bought some of that finish yesterday. The issue I have is should I put a sealer on first. Now I'm doing this in Southern Ontario which is very humid in the summer. We had a record number of days in the 90s last year and when it is that hot here everything sags in the humidity. I need to make sure all my pieces are protected from swelling/cracking. Will the Watco product seal my work or should I seal it first? A long way to ask a short question but I hope the colour helps.
The shop in AZ had its customs and most of the turners used Mylands sanding sealer and Mylands high friction build finish. They have worked OK for me but I have a feeling I would get better results changing things up. I would prefer not to finish on the lathe and while the Mylands had the virtue of quick, finishing time is no longer of the essence to me and I have lots of patience for taking a week or more to do finishing. I have a buddy who is into cutting boards and I asked him how he finishes. He uses Watco Butcher Block finish without applying a sealer. So I thought I would give that a try and bought some of that finish yesterday. The issue I have is should I put a sealer on first. Now I'm doing this in Southern Ontario which is very humid in the summer. We had a record number of days in the 90s last year and when it is that hot here everything sags in the humidity. I need to make sure all my pieces are protected from swelling/cracking. Will the Watco product seal my work or should I seal it first? A long way to ask a short question but I hope the colour helps.