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Oil finishing green wood bowl: Oak burls, Pear wood.

Colin Nelson

Colin Nelson

Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Messages
16
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10
Location
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Hello all,

I didn't find this in my forum search, though I'm sure it's been covered. What happens if one applies an oil finish to an freshly turned green wood bowl? There is a predicament. I have no storage, my wood is about to be thrown away, out of income, and I'm moving houses in a few months. Unfortunately, it's either craft and sell now or not at all.

So far this week I've turned 7 bowls and boxes, mostly live edge Pear and Water Oak Burls. Tung and Citrus oil just came in the mail, also have Grapeseed, no longer using Mineral oil. I'm 100% OK with selling people bowls that change over time, they know and it's attractive to me as a concept and consistent with what I have done in the past, but not that molds or rots. So far the work I have done, that was green and oiled, has remained attractive. But this is only after a year or three.

What will happen long term as these bowls dry?

Also, Tung and Citrus oils are new to me. Does Tung oil form a non-breathing surface?

Thanks for the input!
 
If you turn your live edge bowls with a wall thickness of 3/16” they will be dry and close to done moving in 3 days.

The only sanding I do on the lathe is around a foot detail if the bowl has a foot. These are near impossible to sand off the lathe.

When the bowls come off the lathe I rinse them in the sink. Towel them dry. Put each one in their own box flaps closed.
Day 2 I open a flap day 3 I open all flaps.

4th day they can be sanded and get the first coat of finish.

A 1/2” thick bowl gets about 5 days with the flaps closed then 3 with 1 flap open.

Long term the burls will mostly hold their shape if the Burl is somewhat uniform .
if it is a mix of wood grain and Burl they can go sort of cattywampus as the different density’s shrink different amounts.
Natural edge bowls with balanced grain are just going to go a little more oval which is what most people like about them. The illusion of not being round made on a machine that only make round things.

Boxes depending on design will probably not have lids that fit.
 
Last edited:
hockenbery said:
Maybe
Google found “cattywampus” and an alternative spelling “catawampus”
In any event “catywampus” was incorrect.
Click to expand...

The cat knows what you mean.

Like Al said, if you turn things thin, they will be dry enough to finish in a few days.
 
I'm still learning how to go thin, blew out the bottom of one of the bowls already! The burls had been riding in the back of my Subaru for a couple of months, through freezes and high temps, full of termites and ants.

The bowls have now had 1 coat of 50/50 Orange & Grape Seed oil, 1 coat of 50/50 Orange & Tung oil, and 1 coat of 100% Tung oil.

I tried to upload videos of them, failed. Here are a couple of pics though.
 

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I've tried the wet/green wood and oil trick, and I don't recommend it. Oil and water just don't go so well together. The finish has been blotchy at best, and a finish like walnut oil will mold from too much moisture.

I think Al is giving you great advice: turn thin, dry, then oil. Keep in mind that burl stock can check/crack and it may need to dry longer than normal wood.

Otherwise, get it as dry as you can then add oil toward close to when the bowls might be put into service, but allow a week or so dry time, depending on finish.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Orange oil?
Click to expand...
To thin the Tung oil.



I wish I had time/space to do it more by the book, but it is done. I did a second Tung oil coat today & had them in the sun for a while, then moved to the shade. They are all "dry" now. We have a wedding at the house on Saturday & needed the bowls done.

Life is crazy around here lately!

I know they wont really "harden" or dry for at least a couple weeks, we'll see how that goes.
 
Colin Nelson said:
Hello all,

I didn't find this in my forum search, though I'm sure it's been covered. What happens if one applies an oil finish to an freshly turned green wood bowl? There is a predicament. I have no storage, my wood is about to be thrown away, out of income, and I'm moving houses in a few months. Unfortunately, it's either craft and sell now or not at all.

So far this week I've turned 7 bowls and boxes, mostly live edge Pear and Water Oak Burls. Tung and Citrus oil just came in the mail, also have Grapeseed, no longer using Mineral oil. I'm 100% OK with selling people bowls that change over time, they know and it's attractive to me as a concept and consistent with what I have done in the past, but not that molds or rots. So far the work I have done, that was green and oiled, has remained attractive. But this is only after a year or three.

What will happen long term as these bowls dry?

Also, Tung and Citrus oils are new to me. Does Tung oil form a non-breathing surface?

Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...
If the bowl is green, and its a regular bowl, I would wait a while to make sure that its not going to crack. I should say, all green bowls, natural edge and regular bowls, nothing worst than a client calling to say the bowl has a crack ... Usually, within a week I can tell if its going to make it or not... I let my green bowls dry overnight, then I sand them, then I oil them heavily with Danish Oil. I hope your situation gets better soon, hope you find some storage for your wood and a big place to move into with a big shop...
 
I'm a big fan of tung oil on green wood. I usually wait a day or two or three (in my humid basement), then wet sand with 75% tung oil. Then, they sit for a couple of weeks before buffing. Depending on wood type, my crack rate it under 10%. It leaves a soft satin finish that I prefer.
 
I did try putting oil on wet wood, and just didn't like it. It doesn't seem to penetrate. If I use a hardener based type of poly, it will penetrate, but doesn't cure correctly until the wood is dry. A once turned bowl, with walls about 1/4 inch thick, will be dry in a week to 10 days max. For daily use bowls, I prefer walnut oil from the Doctor's Woodshop.

robo hippy
 
Reed, I agree that 100% tung oil doesn't like to penetrate but by cutting it to 75% seems to help. Like you, I also like to let the wood dry a bit before I try to apply finishes. It still has a lot of residual water but the surface is relatively dry. I let the oil soak for a coffee break before I start sanding. While sanding I'm adding more oil if the sludge starts getting too thick and then wipe clean when finished. There is always some crud left as it dries but that comes off with the Tripoli when buffing.
 
Phil Winch said:
Reed, I agree that 100% tung oil doesn't like to penetrate but by cutting it to 75% seems to help. Like you, I also like to let the wood dry a bit before I try to apply finishes. It still has a lot of residual water but the surface is relatively dry. I let the oil soak for a coffee break before I start sanding. While sanding I'm adding more oil if the sludge starts getting too thick and then wipe clean when finished. There is always some crud left as it dries but that comes off with the Tripoli when buffing.
Click to expand...
Pure tung takes 2 weeks (minimum - on dry wood) to harden here in Virginia and I can't see it mixing well with wet wood. On dry wood, you can shorten the drying time with one of the tung oil branded types that have drying agents and only a partial percentage of tung oil (like Antique Oil)...but I can't see any of these being useful on wet wood.
 
Now that I think about it...a possible solution to your issue might be to "not" use oil but maybe use Milk Paint. Milk paint is a water-based paint and it is bigtime commonly used in the wood crafts community. I have seen some nifty looking turnings finished with Milk Paint. I'm thinking that since it is water-based it should be fine on wet turnings. Google Milk Paint and you will find a company named the same that sells it in about all the colors that you can think about.
 
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