Lost Art Press

Author: Lost Art Press

Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.

A Finish for the Top of a Dining Table

Posted on by Lost Art Press
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.

— Christopher Schwarz

2023 Anarchist’s Gift Guide: Day 1

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The Anarchist’s Gift Guide – comprised only of stuff I have bought and used in our shop – starts today and runs over the next two weeks.

I started this “gift guide” years ago (read past recommendations here) after watching a woodworking TV personality’s “gift guide” for one of his sponsors. Clearly, he’d been given a list of worthless stuff that they wanted gone. 

I thought: What if some poor spouse/child/friend actually took this crap advice?

This gift guide is – as always – unsponsored. Toolmakers who ask to be included in the guide (and they sometimes do) are automatically excluded from it. We don’t make money from these recommendations – there are no affiliate links. I paid full price for these items. And I’ve sought out at least a few things that your children could afford to buy for you.

Here goes.

Marshalltown 829 Masonry Brush
This brush was suggested by a reader. It’s a U.S.-made masonry brush that is just the right size and stiffness to make a great bench brush. And it’s less than $12. I bought two, and I plan to buy a few more for our machine room.

Most bench brushes have fibers that are too fine for my taste. A bench brush needs some coarse fibers to deal with chips – not just fine sawdust.

The Marshalltown 829 (shown above) is made using Tampico fiber, which is harvested from cacti in northern Mexico. The fibers come from inside the cactus leaves. And the fibers are what makes this brush a gem (the hardwood handle and block are nothing special). The fibers are bundled in a way that makes them just right for bench work. You can brush up fine sanding dust. And you can also wrangle those weird cross-grain chips that elude fine brushes.

The Marshalltown 829 is not pretty. But it works exceptionally well.

Update: Tools to Help Jerome Bias’ Class

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Do you have some spare user tools?

You are all so very kind – thank you! We have more offers now than we need now for tools, so we’re set there. And for those of you who are interested in donating a dollar or two toward a few unpaiud bills with this class, we have this link set up: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QHGYHGZMS5EY6

– Fitz

Jerome Bias is teaching a scholarship class here next month. Most of these students are new to hand tool woodworking, so we are gathering tools to give them or loan them during the week.

I’ve got the saws and block planes and hammers we need. But if y’all have some excess user tools that have followed you home at one time or another that you could donate, read on.

Jack Planes
I’m hoping to hand each student a sharp and functioning metallic jack plane they can take home and use. Nothing fancy. Just a Stanley No. 5 or equivalent. I don’t care about what “type” it is, just that it doesn’t need restoration (I don’t have time to do that, I’m afraid). I can easily grind and sharpen the iron.

12” Combination Square
Likewise, I’d like to give them a 12” combination square to take home. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it would be nice if it were better than the plastic ones at the big box stores.

Hand Drill
The students are going to be boring a lot of pilot holes for nails. If you have a functioning hand drill that could use a good home, let us know.

If you have any of these tools you could send, email Megan at fitz@lostartpress.com and let her know. She’ll give you shipping instructions (and let you know if we have already collected enough tools).

Thanks in advance for helping these six new woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

Now Offering Signed Books until Dec. 31, 2023

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Starting now, when you buy one of my seven titles from the Lost Art Press website, it will be signed by me. We’re able to do this now that our fulfillment operations are here in Covington, Kentucky. We hope to make this offer permanent, but until we figure out how much work it will require, we are committing only until the end of the year.

Offering signed copies is one of the many things we have been eager to bring back now that we are running our fulfillment operations here.

Here are the seven titles that will be signed:

“The Stick Chair Book: Revised Edition”
“Sharpen This”
“Ingenious Mechanicks”
“The Anarchist’s Workbench”
“The Anarchist’s Design Book”
“The Anarchist’s Tool Chest”
“Campaign Furniture”

I apologize that we will not be able to personalize these books or offer haikus, drawings of marsupials or signatures in blood. Signing all my books is already a time-consuming task, and adding another layer of complexity isn’t possible.

We also cannot offer signed books to our wholesale or overseas customers. Offering signed copies is one of the few advantages we have in the marketplace, and we have decided to reserve it for books we sell at retail.

But….

What if you just bought a book and are now disappointed it’s not signed? We can mail you a signed signature plate if you send us a Self-addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE).

Here’s what you do: Write your address on an envelope and put a stamp on it. Put that envelope in a second envelope and mail it to:

Signature Bookplate
Lost Art Press
837 Willard St.
Covington, KY, 41011

We are not going to sell signature bookplates. We did that years ago, and the internet called me a narcissist (it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called, but still…). If you are an international customer, you can still get a signature bookplate, but you’ll need to have a USPS Global Forever Stamp on it. Yes, I know that’s a pain. But this is the best we can do. Yes, some of you will try to strong-arm Fitz into doing it for you, but she says she’ll resist.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘Cricket Tables’ in Stock & Shipping

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Our newest title, “Cricket Tables” by Derek Jones, showed up two weeks early. It is in stock and ready to ship. And boy is that cover green. Derek picked out the color, and it has really grown on us. You will not lose this book in the dark.

The book ships for free until Nov. 15. (In fact, all our products ship for free until Nov. 15.)

“Cricket Tables” is the kind of woodworking book that I enjoy immensely. Yes, it’s about the three-legged cricket table, where it came from, what the different variants are and construction details. But the search for the history of the table is also intertwined with the history of the author, who had a long and twisting career in the furniture and publishing world.

And, at the end, Derek shows you how to build three great examples of this vernacular table and sets you off with the basic geometry and hand skills to do the task.

“Cricket Tables” is 112 pages, full color and printed on white, 70# matte coated 8-1/2″ x 11″ paper. The pages are sewn, glued and taped for durability. And the whole thing is wrapped with 98-point boards that are covered in lime cotton cloth. Like all Lost Art Press books, it is produced and printed in the United States.

You can read more about Derek in this profile by the late Nancy Hiller.

— Christopher Schwarz