Sutherland Welles Is A Company With Both Excellent Products And Knowledgeable Personnel.  Check This Article !  

Paul Bennett

FINISHING TIPS FOR WOOD TURNERS

Most wood turners find finishing their projects with Sutherland Welles Ltd. ® Polymerized Tung Oil formulations to be the perfect coating. Polymerized Tung Oil gives the wood grain beautiful definition, is easy to use and is low toxic. There are a variety of products that meet the finishing needs of a very broad range of woodturnings from a Low Lustre, food safe, Polymerized Tung Oil for salad bowls to a Urethane Alkyd- Polymerized Tung Oil combination that provides a quick build, fast curing, high gloss coating for decorative turnings.

EASY TO USE…. All the formulations that we recommend for turnings can be wiped, which means the natural curves and shapes that are characteristic of wood turnings are finished easily, especially in dusty shops, no special finishing room is required.

LOW TOXIC….Defining toxicity has become a challenging issue as the term “toxicity” has different meanings to different audiences. Toxicity in wood finishes arises from the solids, solvents and chemical additives. We formulate all of our finishes with a dual approach to toxicity – limiting the finisher’s exposure and minimizing the impact on the environment.  Over and over what we hear from wood turners is in addition to their high quality, our products are “finisher friendly”! The smell of the finish is easy to tolerate and some even say the formulations that use our botanical citrus solvent, Di-Citrusol™, smell good! Well, they’re right! Our Botanical Polymerized Tung Oil, Millie’s All Purpose Penetrating Tung Oil™, and our Murdoch’s formulations all use Di-citrusol™ which is our botanical solvent derived from the peels of oranges, lemons and limes. Our botanical solvent and our plant derived Tung Oil make a wood finish that has 98% of its formulation from earth renewable resources that play a huge roll in reversing the ozone depletion. These coatings can be classified as Sustainable Wood Finishes. Our Original Formula Polymerized Tung Oil and Wiping Varnish use a highly refined mineral spirit that reduces toxicity by removing some, not all, of the aromatic hydrocarbons which tend to be the problematic component in petroleum based solvents.

In addition to what you can smell, is the absence of chemical driers in our food safe, Millie’s All Purpose Penetrating Tung Oil and the driers in our entire product line are the lowest toxic driers available and they are also below reportable thresholds as mandated by EPA/OSHA standards – and that is a very good thing! Chemical driers are a necessary part of the formulation to allow the coating to cure in a reasonable length of time, but they are also heavy metals and the finisher interacts with them during the finishing process and they remain residential in the coating. Our polymerization process takes our Tung Oil to its “maximum thermal threshold” which maximizes Tung Oil’s natural curing ability and reduces the need for chemical driers in addition to creating a rich looking sheen with the durability of a varnish.

In general, once the solvents have completely evaporated and the coating is completely oxidized, the wood finish is inert and therefore non-toxic. The truth of the matter is that where you live and what you do for work put you more at risk for environmental hazards than the small amount of finish you will interact with in any given project. More and more data suggests that normal household cleaning products are putting more people at risk than products such as ours.

HIGH SOLIDS….You are using products that have much higher solid content and minimal driers than the majority of finishing products commercially available. Solids are what protect the wood. High solid finishes that cure by oxidation require adequate time for the coating to oxidize prior to re-coating.

WOOD PREPERATION

Normally, wood turners will finish the project after taking it up to its final high polish on the lathe. When using our penetrating oils, you will need to start oiling the piece at around 200grit to allow the oil to penetrate.

RECOMMENDED FORMULATIONS

BOTANICAL OR ORIGINAL FORMULA POLYMERIZED TUNG OIL SEALER- This formulation illustrates the beautiful grain definition of the wood. You shouldn’t try to apply the Sealer while turning on the lathe as the heat generated by  turning will cause the solvents to gas off rapidly and the Tung Oil, being so fluid, will migrate out of the wood pore with the rapid volatility of the heat activated solvent. This is referred to as “bleed back”. If it does occur, remove piece to a cool environment and keep wiping. If you find the bleed back soon after the oil has started to harden, you can use a bit of mineral spirits and #0000 steel wool and buff the speckles off. Allow the solvent time to soften the oil and then buff. Repeat until all the speckles are gone. If the steel wool doesn’t remove the speckles, the piece will have to be sanded using the finest grit possible to remove the oxidized oil. Apply Sealer on a cool piece in room temperatures of 60-70deg. F. and allow to cure 6-8 hours. Buff it down with 200grit paper or #0000 steel wool. Apply the second coat of Polymerized Tung Oil Sealer under the same conditions. Please refer to the technical sheet and product label for complete detailed instructions.

BOTANICAL OR ORIGINAL FORMULA LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH LUSTRE POLYMERIZED TUNG OIL- These are the topcoats that will provide protection for the wood and a sheen according to which coating is used and how many coats are applied. In general, the higher the oil content, the more sheen and the longer the cure. After the last coat of Sealer is cured, the wood can be sanded to a much higher polish, 400/600 grit before applying one the above mentioned lustres. All these formulations will need to be applied and wiped off. Please refer to the technical sheet and product label for complete detailed instructions.

MILLIE’S ALL PURPOSE PENETRATING TUNG OIL – Millie’s is our lowest toxic finish. This is the coating that is most often used for salad bowls or when there is a known sensitivity to petroleum based finishes. Millie’s is formulated with Low Lustre Polymerized Tung Oil, our botanical solvent Di-Citrusol™ and beeswax. There are no chemical driers in Millie’s therefore the application for Millie’s is different from all our other finishes. Please refer to the technical sheet and product label for complete detailed instructions.   

WIPING VARNISH – This finish is our recommendation for wood turnings that require more sheen or more protection AND you want to minimize the number of coats it would take with an oil-only finish to get there. The Wiping Varnish is formulated with an equal amount of Polymerized Tung Oil and high quality urethane resin. It can be used as both a wiping finish or brushed on and used as a film finish. Although, it offers minimal ambering -Wiping Varnish and our Spar Varnish are the only formulations that will amber at all. Cure times tend to be the same as they are with our Polymerized Tung- 12-24 hours depending on what formulation and how many coats are down. Please refer to the technical sheet and product label for complete detailed instructions.

MURDOCH’S HARD SEALER OR HARD OIL- Again, this finish is our recommendation for wood turnings that require more sheen or more protection AND you want to minimize the number of coats it would take with an oil-only finish to get there. The basic difference between these coatings and Wiping Varnish is they are formulated with our botanical solvent, Di-Citrusol™.   They have a much shorter cure time and no ambering at all. Both can be used as wiping or film finishes. Please refer to the technical sheets and product labels for complete detailed instructions.

Ready To Order? Call Mary (800) 322-1245 Or (802) 635-2700 She Will Tell You What You Need For Your Project