One of the themes in “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is about how I have turned my back on modern finishes that – even with precautions – are harmful to your health. During the last four years I’ve moved almost exclusively to using shellac, wax, milk paint and soap.
I’m no evangelist; if you like precat lacquer and other similar finishes stick with them (for as long as they are legal). I’m simply trying to say: There are alternatives to these finishes that work very well in an amateur or professional shop.
One of the recipes I didn’t have room for in the book was “soft wax,” a concoction I got via Derek Jones that originated with Yannick Chastain. I’ve made several batches of this stuff and love it for interiors, especially drawers and cabinets.
It smells fantastic – much more exotic that you would think with these basic ingredients. You can read Derek’s entire method here.
Here’s the recipe converted to Standard American.
Take 7 ounces of shredded beeswax and melt it in a double boiler (a glue pot will work fine). When the wax has melted, take it off heat. Stir in 3.5 ounces of mineral spirits and add 10.5 ounces of turpentine (the real stuff, not the fake).
When the mixture cools it will become a substance that is about the consistency of peanut butter. I keep it in glass jars in the shop.
Apply the wax with a soft, lint-free cloth. Let it absorb for about 15 minutes. Then buff it with a second clean cloth.
A top with a scrubbed finish at the Cheltenham museum.
Editor’s note: Search around for information on how to achieve a “scrubbed finish” and you will encounter a comedy of chemistry. People try to achieve this with all manner of stains and caustic chemicals. A real scrubbed finish is simply bare wood that has been cleaned and cleaned – getting better over time. Alan Peters explains:
At times this (a flawless finish) disturbs me, for the surface that some admire and some craftsmen strive to satisfy has little to distinguish it from a piece of plastic laminate; for that is precisely what the surface has become, after the grain has been filled and endless coats of plastic film have been applied and painstakingly rubbed down.
Natural wood finishes, such as oil and wax, are very susceptible to marking in their early stages and do require care and attention. Frankly, this dilemma of finding wood finishes that leave the material looking like wood, resist marking, and improve rather than deteriorate with age, has dogged me and often defeated me these past 20 years….
For example, a scrubbed finish to an oak dining table, so favoured by the Cotswold School, is a beautiful surface, immensely practical in use, improving with age and developing a wonderful surface texture that would look fine in many situations, especially in the older farmhouse or cottage-style dwelling, and for most of the time it requires no more than a wipe over with a damp cloth after a meal.
However, it is also virtually colourless, just a bland uniform silvery grey. It has none of the colour variations of say a rosewood veneer or an oiled elm surface, and it is this richness of colour and grain that many of us find attractive about wood, so one has to move in this instance to a finish that heightens and preserves these characteristics….
Scrubbed and Washed Finishes
Ten years ago on moving to Devon I needed to make a pine kitchen/dining table quickly for our own use. Today, it is a beautiful golden colour similar to old stripped pine with not a bruise and hardly a scratch to be seen. We do not use a table cloth, only place mats, and we have never treated it at all gently. Yet, all that it has received in treatment or finish is a regular wipe over with a damp cloth after use and, once a month perhaps, it is thoroughly washed and scrubbed with hot water and household detergent. The hot water raises any bruises and scratches and the table looks like new, or rather, even better than new, for it has acquired a lovely patina now. There is no comparison with the treacly, bruised and scratched polyurethane surfaces so often encountered with modern manufactured pine tables.
A scrubbed finish is not restricted to pine, and I have used it for dining and kitchen tables and sideboards in oak, chestnut, pine, cedar and also sycamore. In the case of the latter, if an occasional wash with household bleach is substituted for the detergent, a beautifully white spotless surface will result.
My only regret is that I cannot persuade more of my customers to have this finish.
— Alan Peters, “Cabinetmaking: The Professional Approach, 2nd edition” (Linden)
After cooking the soap concoction and letting it cool for 24 hours, it became opaque and thickened to a mayonnaise-like consistency. Today I used it to finish the top of a worktable that is based off examples shown in the Tacuinum Sanitatis, a health book from the Middle Ages.
My goal with this worktable was to give the top what some people call a “scrubbed finish” with a painted base below. An authentic scrubbed finish is really no finish at all. It is the result of years of washing – just bare, almost-bleached wood.
A top with a scrubbed finish at the Cheltenham museum.
The finish is so prized by some collectors that it is routinely faked by some dealers. (Or so I am told.)
Applying the mayo-like finish is quick and easy. It spreads easily with a rag. The water soaks into the wood or evaporates quickly, leaving a bit of a hazy sheen on the wood. A clean rag wipes off the excess on the surface. It takes about 5 minutes total to apply a coat of finish to the top shown.
After the soap dries, it is indeed a dead-flat finish. Unlike other users, however, I didn’t experience any raised grain on the tabletop; my guess is that is because I didn’t use any sandpaper. The top is right off the jack plane. Even so, I sanded the finish lightly between coats with a #320-grit sanding sponge.
After four coats the top is very smooth and soft. Just what I wanted.
I’m going to experiment more with a soap finish in the coming months. I like how it can be used to produce a variety of sheens depending on the amount of water you add to the flakes. I also really like how simple it is and how difficult it is to mess up – perfect for the beginner. The added bonus is that it is much less toxic than many solvent-based finishes. I have enough volatile organics in my shop.
— Christopher Schwarz
The soap finish after 24 hours of cooling and setting up.
My first experiments with a runny soap finish didn’t impress me – the wood just got wet and a little slimy. But after watching this movie, I’m trying it again. This time I’m going to let the mixed finish sit for 24 hours before applying it to the wood.
This morning I mixed up a runny solution of boiling hot water and soap flakes (1 cup soap flakes and 4 cups of water). And it’s cooling as I type.
By the way, I got my soap flakes from MSO Distributing. They’re made in England without any additives or fragrance. Delivery was prompt. I’ve also ordered a pound of soap flakes from Pure Soap Flakes to give the USA-made flakes a try, even though they are more expensive than the British flakes.
“Most of (Hans) Wegner’s furniture is delivered untreated – only buffed and treated with soap and water, so that the fine wood is ready to become more beautiful with use. Some furniture is delivered with a clear lacquer finish.”
— “Hans J. Wegner: Hacedor de Sillas (Chairmaker)” by Jens Bernsen (Danish Design Centre, 1998)
I’m in the middle of building a new chair design in ash and am planning on finishing the chair in soap and water – a finish that is common in Denmark.
It’s a simple, easy-to-mess-up finish that I first heard about from Bob Flexner while I edited his column “Flexner on Finishing.” You can read a 2010 column by Flexner on the finish here at Woodshop News. For more details, including photos of the mixing process, check out this blog entry from Caleb James.
I’ve seen this finish on some vintage pieces at a couple stores that carry Danish Modern pieces here in Cincinnati. I visited one of the stores yesterday to get some photos, but they had filled the showroom with giant live-edge tables. Dipped in plastic. Not good.
So the photo above is one of Wegner’s pieces.
Like paint, oil or beeswax, the soap finish appeals to me because it doesn’t require special equipment (spraying lacquer) or years of experience (a shellac polish) to execute. It’s a good place for beginners to start when finishing furniture (or floors). I’ll post photos of the finish next month when the chair is complete.
