Castile Soap Cream for Finishing I advocate using Castile soap for finishing some pieces of furniture. It’s non-toxic, easy to repair and gives light-colored woods a whitish glow.
Never heard of soap finish? I’ve written and recorded a lot about it. Here’s an introduction.
The only problem people ever have with soap finish is making it. I use soap flakes from the Pure Soap Flake Co. plus boiling water. Different ratios of water:soap will give you a different finish. Sometimes I hear from people who just cannot get the soap to make anything other than a watery goo.
I’ve had that problem with really old soap flakes (those that are more than a year old). But some woodworkers have had the problem with fresh flakes. Weird, I know. I don’t know how to fix their problem from afar except by suggesting they buy the Castile Cream Soap, which is already mixed. It’s $10 for an 8-ounce jar, which will get you started on a single project.
It is mixed to have a consistency like hand soap. Scoop it out of the jar with a soft cloth and rub on a thin coat on the bare wood. When the water dries, buff it off with a clean, soft cloth. It will leave a matte and soft finish behind.
No, it’s not durable. It’s soap. But it is easily repaired and renewed.
If you need an introduction to this kind of finishing (the kind that doesn’t kill you and looks better with wear), please read this.
Japanese ‘Bank Paper’ I write a lot of stuff down every day on paper – sketches of future projects, notes on joinery, Megan’s lunch order, and dimensions, dimensions, dimensions. For the last decade I’ve mostly used the free throw-away pads that our lumber supplier would bring us every month for my scratchings.
When the pandemic hit, however, the sales visits stopped. And I ran out of free notepads.
One day I went into a local writing supply store to get a new notepad and came out a changed man. I discovered Japanese “Bank Paper.”
Look, I know that a lot of you must be paper snobs and will pooh-pooh my love of the Bank Paper. But this stuff brings the same joy of touching the skin of a lover. It’s so smooth and yielding. It accepts ink and pencil with the same facility. And it’s just a joy to use and touch.
And it’s not terribly expensive, either.
OK, yes, $26 is a lot to pay for a pad of 100 A4 sheets (but if you’re willing to pay a little more still, try to find the pad via a local supplier). But I will gladly visit my local writing supply store again for another when I use up my current pad. The funny thing about nice paper is that you use it up utterly. I write on both sides. I leave no space empty. And I enjoy every minute of it.
Look, I can’t explain it. It’s tactile. If you won’t spend $26, will you perhaps spend $19.95 on this A5 notebook? Or come visit us, and I’ll give you a sheet of mine to try.
Editor’s note: My favorite paper is a type Chris bought to try years ago and hated, so he gave it to me. It is also a little spendy, but… Karst Stone Paper. My Parker Jotter (my favorite pen, by the by) glides delightfully over its slickery surface.
A real live photo of the real books filling our real warehouse.
We are extending our free shipping offer until midnight Nov. 24 for one reason: It’s working.
While most “inventory reduction” sales verge on bunkum, we are offering free shipping for one single reason: to reduce our inventory. Right now, the Anthe building is loaded to its maximum capacity (as per a report from our structural engineer). And we still have six storage lockers filled with pallets of books.
We are working to get the third floor and basement ready for storage, but whether we have enough room for everything is still a guess.
The free shipping offer costs us. But we’re thrilled to store the books on your bookshelves instead of on the pallets in the Anthe building or (worse!) in storage lockers. And thank you to everyone who has already bought a book, tool or piece of apparel.
Free shipping applies to everything in our store. You can start shopping here.
The Sharpie PRO (or the Fancy-pants Sharpie T.E.C.) I feel like a fool for having used regular Sharpie markers in the shop. They are…OK. As long as you don’t expose them to water, alcohol, pretty much any solvent or even a stern look. Face it: The ink in regular Sharpies is not durable enough for workshop use.
I’ve used them for years to mark important settings on my machines, for marking glass and plastic bottles for mixing finishes, and for marking cutting edges while sharpening.
And pretty much, the regular Sharpie marker sucks at all these tasks. But I didn’t know there were other options.
Enter the Sharpie PRO. It sucks so much less. It makes a far more durable mark on plastics, metal and even wet wood. It even smells more dangerous and professional, like you shouldn’t sniff it for too long.
Mostly, however, it’s what a workshop marker should be – at baseline. The cap has a heavy-duty clip, so it clings to your shop apron and stays there. The marker has a rectangular cross-section, so it doesn’t roll off the bench. The ink takes a little longer to dry, but it stays put. Even if you wipe it with alcohol, you won’t lose all the ink on the surface.
Question: Is it available in an ultra-fine tip? If it is, I’m unaware of it and can’t find it. But the big Sharpie PRO works fine – as long as you aren’t trying to do calligraphy.
For the space nerds, check out the Sharpie T.E.C. (trace element certified). This one has ink that really sticks and smells completely dangerous.
Our breakfast table has an oil/wax blend on it and has survived just fine.
Almost every week on the Open Wire, we get asked some variation of the question: What finish should I use for the top of a dining table?
My answer is not going to be the most obvious one (polyurethane/varnish) or the most durable (conversion varnish or – shudder – bartop). Instead, my preferred finish comes from the fact that these three qualities are most important to me:
1. I want a finish that is easily repaired, even if that means it is less durable.
2. I want a finish that looks better the more it is used.
3. I want a finish without dangerous solvents or heavy-metal driers.
So why do I not like the highly durable finishes, such as conversion varnish, lacquer and polyurethane/varnish? They all have poisonous solvents, which the woodworker (me) has to endure. The finishes are safe (enough) after they have cured. Also, these finishes look great until they reach a tipping point, but then they deteriorate and look terrible. And they are difficult to repair. Usually you have to strip the finish and start over.
What about shellac? It is easy to repair and doesn’t have to use a dangerous solvent. Correct. Shellac is OK for tabletops. It is easy to repair. Usually you just have to pad on some more shellac. But when it deteriorates, it looks like crap – just like lacquer and polyurethane/varnish. If I want a shiny, high-style finish, then I will definitely use shellac. And a good coat of wax.
So what meets all the criteria? Several finishes.
1. Paint. Don’t immediately discount it. Paint is durable, can be non-toxic, looks better when it gets beat up. It is easy to repair (add more paint). Most woodworkers are horrified at the idea of painting a tabletop. I am not.
2. Some sort of oil, wax or combination of oil and wax. These finishes are so safe they can be edible. Beeswax and raw linseed oil are used to coat our foods – or even used as food. They are not durable at all. But they are easy to repair (add more oil and/or wax). And they look better the more they are used.
3. Soap. It is completely safe. Easy to renew/repair. But it offers almost no protection. It is used in many Scandinavian countries on furniture, woodwork and floors. My desk has a soap finish and I can attest to the fact that it looks better with age. After almost 10 years it has a glow that no finish can give you on the first day.
A worktable finished with soap on the tabletop.
I don’t expect you to follow my advice. It takes time to realize that all these fancy film finishes are really short-term solutions. If your spouse really wants a durable finish on a tabletop, here’s what I would do:
Mix any oil-based polyurethane/varnish 50/50 with low-odor mineral spirits. Wipe on a thin coat. Wipe it until it is just barely there. Let it dry. Scuff-sand it a little with #320-grit sandpaper until it is smooth. Then add another very thin coat of the mixture. Repeat five or six times until the finish starts to build. It is time consuming. When it fails it will look like crap. But it will protect the tabletop for a good long while. (Perhaps until you come to your senses and switch to an easily repaired finish.)
This table was built in 2006, and the top was originally finished with sprayed lacquer. It looked great for a day or two…until some nail polish remover was spilled on it. It looked like crap until earlier this year, when – finally – Megan and I sanded off the old finish then applied a couple coats of soft wax. It could probably use another coat now thanks to some scratches – but that’s easy.
