Texfire

Went much better this time. While still a little blotchy, it's much more uniform. Attached is a finished applied then what it looks like this morning for both boards. I guess it was a sanding issue, which was made worse by glue issues. I'm thinking a second lighter coat and it'll be done. Thanks for your help.

I let it "sit" for almost 24 hours to let the water dry and dust settle out of the shop air before applying finish. They looked dry, so I don't know if the water was an issue at that point. I finished both sides of the board and let them dry on painter's pyramids overnight. I'm not sure if that's the backside or not, I actually made two boards but only showed pictures of the most blotchy one.

I did pick up a new can because I had the same concerns, but when I opened the older can, there wasn't any change in viscosity or color that I could see. It stirred up just fine without seperation or particulate, so I decided to use up the older batch. I'll chuck it and use the newer stuff if I have the same issue again.

I missed that cutting board thread, thanks for the head's up. I'll go light on the finish so I don't form a film. I just want to seal the pores. I'll evaluate after the second coat and see if it needs another. I went with Salad Bowl Finish because it is food safe and doesn't require the maintenance of mineral oil since this is a gift. If I was doing this for myself I would have gone with mineral oil or walnut oil, but I wanted it to be easy to maintain and avoid potential nut allergies.

Well shoot, I knew that about water based, but totally boneheaded it. I did not raise the grain this time, so hopefully that was it.

Just one. I thought about trying a second one before sanding, but I could see some glue in the blotchy area, so I decided to sand and try again.

FYI, pic 4 is post water spritz, but pre finish. Pic 5 is post finish the next morning.

Hey folks, making my first end grain cutting board with soft maple and mahogany, and it was looking pretty good until it came time to apply the finish. I used a jack plane and card scraper to get the surface flat, I thought, and sanded it with my DX90 with P80 then P440 grit. After spritzing it with water to raise the grain and sanding a final time, I applied the first coat of finish. I followed Marc's suggestions and went with a simple wiping varnish of General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish diluted approximately half with mineral spirits and applied generously with a rag for a couple of minutes before wiping off the excess and letting it dry overnight. The last photo is the blotching that I found this morning. So what did I do wrong? Did I not level the surface sufficiently? The can I took the varnish from has been opened before and is two years old, is it doing something funky because of age? The shop is insulated but not heated, is it possible it got too cold when curing? I ended up going to Woodcraft to get a bigger sander, and they suggested it was left over glue that hadn't gotten removed. I purchased an ETS 150/3 instead of trying to sand it all with the smaller 3" sander. I came back and hit it with a card scraper, sanded it all with P80, then P320, removed the dust and applied more of the wiping varnish. It looked good going on, but so did it last night. Any other ideas on things I can try or reasons why it would have blotched like that? I'm coming down to the wire if I want to apply another two layers of varnish and let it dry by Christmas morning.

I don't know if you've already thought of this, but I'd ask Highland Woodworking if they have a bulletin board I could post it on. Would be a tighter focus on local woodworkers.

A friend posted this video from a Youtube channel named Chop with Chris. In the video he makes a dining table out of reclaimed lumber with handtools for his anniversary. Nice video, I like the whimsical nature and his wife's reaction the the finished table. Something about hearing someone chop mortises fast forwarded is just mesmerizing. Subscribed. ps- I did a quick search and didn't find this posted in recent history, my apologies if I'm that guy who is the last to the party.

Yeah, an awful loss. Too many dead firefighters this year.

I found that the Veritas saws fit my hand very well, so I'm going to keep buying that form factor until I need a saw they don't make. And the quality is very good, but not priced too expensive. I'm sure the Lie Nielsen and Bad Axe saws are a joy to use, but my Veritas work well for me for now and aesthetically match.

Like you say, the newer T-LOCs have better functionality, not just an appearance change so it's not really changing just for that.

Man I love old machinery like that. Think it's big enough?

That's okay, you can send me your non-matching discards and you won't have to worry about them any more...