Bill Schwab wrote:
Hello all,

The first of my home-grown storage boxes is taking shape, and if I am
going to put any kind of finish on the inside surfaces, I should do it
soon.

It looks to me as though people typically finish the outside surfaces
and leave raw wood (poplar in my case) contacting the oily tooling. Is
that what you recommend? I am thinking of using an oil finish on the
outside.

I'm no woodworker so take my advise with
a grain of salt. Poplar is pretty soft
and I'd go with a hard varathane coating
of some sort to protect it from minor
knocks.