restoring the finish on old bowls

[Skip C]

I am not a turner but this seems the best forum for an answer on how I should restore the finish on 2 old bowls that belonged to my in-laws. Both have been used as salad bowls for decades and the finish inside the bowls as you can imagine is in great shape but the exteriors, esp the bottoms have not been regularly oiled and the wood is bare and dry. The exterior finish gets progressively thinner going down the bowl and the bottom and last 2 inches of the sides are completely bare wood. The larger is a beautiful birdseye maple while the smaller is a nondescipt, dark wood, but both are old enough to have become oblong many years ago. My wife has agreed to let me experiment on the smaller bowl but will not allow me to touch the birdseye bowl except to oil it!

I have not tackled either bowl. I was planning on sanding the exterior only of the smaller bowl and finish it with a coat of melted beeswax followed by several coats of mineral or walnut oil which is the method that I used on serving boards that I recently made. Would this be a proper method of restoration? I appreciate any suggestions.

Skip

[mudder]

Skip,

I'm confused as to why you use the beeswax before the oil. I have finished a few bowls like this and have always used mineral oil followed by beeswax. This finish needs constant upkeep. When I was in woodcraft last week I came across some Mike Mahoney walnut oil. this is advertised to be very pure, foodsafe and more importantly, it is suposed to dry to a hard finish. There is also a finish by General finishers called Salad bowl finish but I have not used it. I think sillygoose used it on some of her cutting boards so you might ask her. If your bowls are antique they most likely have an oil finish and I would continue to use oil.

Mu humble opinion.


Mudder

[Skip C]

Mudder,

That is a resonable question! I used this method recently after reading about it on another forum on this website. The first coat was actully a mix of beeswax and mineral oil followed by 7 coats of mineral oil. I had never used beeswax before but it produced a beautiful finish altho I have no long term wear results to report as I finished the serving boards only a month ago. Can't remember who recommended this method but he evidently makes lots of cutting boards and serving boards as a hobby.

will report how the finish holds up.

Skip

[Jim Boyd]

I have heard of beeswax mixed with something used as a finish. Can't remember what it was though. I think it was one of Raffin's videos. I have used the Salad Bowl finish and it hah held up well for a couple of years.

[Mort]

I am not certain I would sand the exterior of the bowl. IMO part of the charm of old wood pieces is the "used/abused look". I use beeswax disolved in gum turpentine as a finish on salad bowls. Appears to be long lasting, is easily polished - satin sheen - and touched up. The turpentine flashes off in two weeks or so - so is food safe. Raffan burns beeswax into the wood - lathe running - then follows with mineral oil also burned into the wood. Beewax disloves in mineral oil also as previously noted.

[mudder]

Well, I checked all the Raffan video's that I have and it seems old Richard varies his technique with each video. In his video "turning a bowl" he applies mineral oil first and then melts on beeswax with the bowl spinning on the lathe. In the "turning wood" video he uses just cooking oil for the scoop and the breadboard. And in the "turning projects" video he seems to use both techniques. I am no expert on the subject but I would think that any foodsafe oil & wax method will work as the finish is intended to keep water from soaking into the bowl. I will further say that since you don't have a lathe to "melt" the beeswax onto the bowl I would use a finish that softens the beeswax first as Mort has suggested. You could use a double boiler to melt the beeswax and pour it on but if I was going to go to all that trouble I would melt on Caranuba wax instead as it is much harder and should be more durable.

I hope this does not add to the confusion.

Mudder

[Skip C]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think that I will start with the samller bowl and just apply oil and beeswax w/o doing any sanding. If it looks good, then I am finished (and if doesn't look good, I can cross that bridge later!).

Skip