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.
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.
Full-size coffer from the book on which Chris is currently working, “The American Peasant.” He left town and left me in charge of painting.
Thanks for the questions! Comments are now closed.
I’m at the shop today, waiting for yesterday’s paint to dry (it’s linseed oil paint, so I’ll be waiting a few days beyond today, too…but I won’t have to apply more than the one coat!). So, I’m ready to answer your woodworking-, paint-, cat- and early modern literature-related questions. Chris is on vacation…so while he might chime in, I hope he does not.
Type your queries in the comment field below, and I will do my best to answer them. (If any are about chairs, I will likely be reading from the Book(s) of Schwarz to answer…so maybe check there for yourself first?) Comments will close at around 5 p.m.
– Fitz
p.s. Unlike Chris, I do not like to get up early…so you may not see any answers from me until well after this post goes live.
Diagram and description of John Cram’s fan chair, 1786. American Philosophical Society.
The American Philosophical Society was founded in Philadelphia in 1743 by Ben Franklin to “promote useful knowledge.” Before the U.S. Patent Office was formed, one of the functions of the APS was as a repository for plans for inventions and devises for improving the human condition.
In 1786, Charles Wilson Peale, artist, soldier, scientist and member of the APS, sent a letter to Benjamin Rush with a diagram and description of a chair made for him by John Cram, an instrument maker. Peale’s letter, read to the Society in August 1786, described the chair as, “useful to the studious and others that are obliged to sit at their employment…to keep them cool…” The superstructure was wood and the fan was pasteboard.
The secretary’s notes for the meeting refer to John Cram as “an ingenious mechanic.” Not much is known about John Cram, other than he was an instrument maker. He was listed in a 1785 city directory with a shop on Lombard Street between Second and Third.
There are at least two fan chairs in existence, one at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia estate, and one in the New Haven Museum in Connecticut. Chair dated 1786-1800, Mount Vernon Collections, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.
The notes for the Mount Vernon chair state Washington purchased a fan chair in 1787 while he was in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. The whereabouts of that chair are unknown, “but this version likely resembles the original.” The chair on display is dated 1786-1800 and the edge of the fan is decorated with a trailing vine.
The second chair, in the collection of the New Haven Museum, was owned by Dr. Eneas Munson. It is dated 1786-1790. The fan on Dr. Munson’s chair was painted to depict an eagle’s wing, “kidney-shaped fan, painted black with painted gold feathers.” Dr. Eneas Munson’s chair, 1786-1790. New Haven Museum.
The Mount Vernon Collection has a page for their fan chair and you can find it here. Under the photo of the chair is a link to a PDF with a full description of the chair’s construction and the fan mechanism (the website does not allow a direct link to the PDF).
