I like my bowls to have the look of a sheet of glass on them. So most
times when I finish them, I apply 2 or 3 coats of sanding sealer
sanded inbetween each, then follow with 2 or 3 coats of polyurethane.

All but the last 2 coats of poly are applied on the lathe with the
bowl still mounted.

I never have to leave my mount this way, the spray coating applies
very evenly and rarely runs because I apply it while the bowl turns on
the lathe, and letting it spin after I spray it dries it much faster
too.

But, my first coat of sealer is what I use to illuminate surface
defects.

If any exist, a just sharpened scraper and barely touching cuts clean
up the surface very well without tearing, and actually works better
than sanding because the hardened sealer makes the raised wood cut
cleaner. It only needs light sanding with fine grits afterwards and
then I apply subsequent coats of sealer and poly.

I dont hear of many people using poly. It may be a purist convention
to use other kinds of finish and no poly, but I really like how the
bowl looks with gloss poly on it when you sand thru 180 to 400 grit
paper, polish it with rouge and a wheel, then apply poly's.

jimmmy
http://handturnedbowls.biz


On Jul 25, 4:57 pm, TWW wrote:
Many years ago I attended a presentation by a guy who wrote on the
psychology of computer programming. He put a picture up on the screen
and asked people to find all the defects. There was a wide range of
numbers from people in the audience but nobody found them all.

The reason I bring this up is I have a problem with noticing torn
endgrain on bowls at least until after I put some finish on when all
the defects often appear out of the blue. Do the experts in this group
use teir fingers to find defects, expert vision or some other magic
techniques? Thanks for the ideas.