Hey Guys-

I'm going to break with the standard school of thought here, and point
out that a guy *could* use stain on a bowl... I've had a few hunks
of mystery wood that were really bland and disappointing that came to
life with some judicious staining. I know it's off the track for the
current popular view that a turning can only be treated with oil, wax,
or some combination of the two, but it's good to remember that there
are a whole stable of products that actually work pretty well on the
finishing shelves. I'll grant you that a person shouldn't take a nice
piece of cherry or lacewood and slap a walnut stain on it for lack of
foresight, but a bit of good fruitwood stain on something dull like
boxwood can reveal some hidden grain and character that would
otherwise go unappreciated.

I don't mean to get on a soapbox here (for those of you who don't
know, that means I'm climbing on it now), especially as a relatively
novice turner, but I do a lot of finishing at work- windows, trim,
cabinets, doors, etc. and not once, not even one single time, has a
customer requested that thier project be treated with a quick rubdown
of linseed oil alone or anything even similar. They want their stuff
colored and armored, so when the kids set a can of soda on the table,
they can wipe it off with a wet sponge and don't have to worry.

It's a nice effect to simply bring out the beauty of a hardwood burl
or some bird's eye or curly figure with a deep oil finish, but let's
face it- not everything that comes off every lathe is a work of art,
and sometimes the artful will of nature can use a little help.

Here's an example-

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:07:07 -0500, "George" George@least wrote:

Worst part of it is, it just looks ugly. No color in the raw, and oil
doesn't seem to have done much for it. At least it was a learning
experience, if not a creative one.

Not to pick on you, George, but why couldn't that be a creative
experience? If something has the grain character of a sheet of paper
when you've got it sanded and on that lathe, who is going to come and
slap your wrists if you stain it, paint it, burn it with a torch or
otherwise break with convention? It doesn't have to be practice or
firewood, it can still be art.

I could be wrong in most cases, but I've got a sneaking feeling that I
have had the experience that has led to this status quo- the first
couple of times I did a woodworking project of any kind, I didn't know
anything at all about the finishing process, and very little about
wood in general. I started out with SPF lumber- because it was cheap,
and I knew where to get it. It was hard coaxing even a square cut for
a simple butt joint out of my tools because my hands didn't yet know
the way, and after struggling to get something that looked
half-decent, I figured slapping on a coat of stain was the easy part
to finish it up.

Boy was I wrong. After all my hard work, my projects were blotchy
messes. I had to paint all those first projects to cover up the
shoddy finish, and for a long time, oil was the only thing I was
willing to risk. I carried that over from the flat work right onto
the lathe, and I've got a bevy of bland little bowls and other
trinkets that really could have used some help that I didn't have the
courage to give them. I didn't know about sanding sealer, washcoats,
stain v. dye penetration or any of that stuff, I just knew I messed
something up, and got spooked.

But being forced to work with finishes of all sorts for customers who
don't give a darn about the nobility of the wood or the hidden beauty
of an elusive figure- but just want the new trim or side table to
match the stuff that's already there made me get over that, and I feel
that the knowledge gleaned from that experience has helped my work
improve, without any mystical karmic rebutte for my use of impure
methods.

I know this is a long winded rant, but I've seen thread after thread
about food-safe finishes, whether walnut oil or peanut oil or danish
oil or paste wax is the proper finish, and even threads about how some
wood is just trash because the oil doesn't do much for it. Add to
that the occasional comment about how customer/friend/family member X
had the audacity to wash a bowl in the sink or dishwasher rather than
gently massaging it with the proper oil on a lint-free cloth to clean
it, and destroyed it in the doing, and I begin to wonder. Have we so
enshrined the use of simple oils that it has become holy writ that a
true turner shall use neither laquer nor polyurethane nor stain nor
varnish lest he (or she) be reviled amongst all good men, and cast out
to wander the word forsaken?

I can't be the only guy that thinks it's kind of funny that a group of
people who love crazy glue and epoxy, dishsoap and microwaves in the
commission of thier craft, and will make their own tools out of
anything from a used spoon to a ground down piston become such purists
right at the penultimate moment. Is it fear- or am I missing
something? Personally, when I think about eating out of a bowl I like
the idea of a layer of inert plastic between my food and some wood
that is mildly toxic (and some of them are...) or just bad-tasting
with some glue on it! And as a bonus, that sucker can go right in the
sink with the rest of the dishes when I'm finished.

Anyhow, I don't intend to cast scorn on anyone, or trash anyone's
favorite method- and I mean that, truly. Any specific methods or
products mentioned are just examples, not gospel. I've just been
wondering about this for a while, and figured it could make a decent
discussion. May have been due to turning weeping willow burl all day-
it's a striking wood and fun to turn, but I have to say quite frankly
that is smells a bit like ****, and I couldn't see letting my food
touch the stuff without a nice shiny coat of poly over it!

As always, YMMV.