Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
A cold front moved in, bringing with it some snow, and a frigid shop. Luckily I got all of my glue-ups finished this weekend, when it was still in the 60’s. I surfaced the board at the drum sander. I hadn’t noticed that my (only) strip of 80 grit paper had gotten a little too worn; leaving me to have to resort to 120 grit to do the thicknessing. On normal face grain, this would be perfectly fine, but end grain is another story. Definitely need the coarser stuff to tackle that. (Hope I remember to stock up before the next endgrain surfacing job.)
I installed a brand new 1/4″ blade in the band saw (new, sharp blade cuts SO easily, who’d a thunk it?), cut, and sanded the top to shape; sort of a clock/spice cabinet s-curve that fits well with the quilted mosaic of the board. Now all that is left is to ease the edges and do the finish sanding, and then a few coats of mineral oil. I have been debating which finish for the board: pure mineral oil, oil and wax mixture, or the oil/varnish salad bowl formula that some recommend (Wood Whisperer, you know who you are!). I decided on the straight mineral oil finish as the easiest one for the client to maintain. Yes, you have to reapply more frequently, but the oil is cheap, readily available, and anyone can do it. A light sanding (if desired), slather on the oil, let it soak in, then wipe off. Easy peasy.
Acornhouseworkshop 
Leave a Reply