Cannot tell you about furniture wax finish however on turnings yes. The wax only will need a refresh in time some waxes show fingerprints bad , Renaissance is one which may be best in this area. I prefer wax as an end and not as the whole. Or to say wax over finish not over wood.

Gerald, do you have a preference to which wax is used where?  You stated Renaissance wax over finished turnings, but will other waxes work well?  What of paste wax on furniture?  And to rejuvenate the wax finish, do you wipe it down with mineral spirits to remove the old wax and apply a new coat?  Thanks. 

You'll find if you get into pre-cats they have a variety of flat to gloss. Hard to go wrong...

That looks like a beautiful piece to me.  A family heirloom!

 

One of my family members is a Krenov disciple and he says something like - "change the wood, not the finish."  

 

While I'm a woodworking pre-schooler, that suggests some type of clear finish to bring out the contrast in the woods.

John, that is a beautiful piece.  Well done.

I can see why you could be nervous, that is beautiful!

Wipe on finishes are probably the most goof-proof.  https://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/master_the_wipe-on_finish/#


Re: waxing a finish.  I read last week that you put on two coats and wipe off 4.   In other words, take off as much as you can, then a bit more.

First of all I would like to thank everyone for sharing your expertise and your kind words. I found the comments to be both humbling, as I have seen pictures of some of the fine craftsmanship you craftsmen have produced, and I also find it encouraging. I am going to buy Flexner's book on finishing as I realize that there is worlds more that I don't know than I do know. Thanks again to everyone for your generosity. It gives me hope that with much effort and diligence, I may actually be able to call myself a craftsman someday down the road. 

 

I need to get this project completed by next Sunday as my daughter and son in law move in their new home next week and want us to come over for a cook out. I want to bring it with me. So I decided to go with Waterlox satin oil finish and use the wipe on technique though I am a bit concerned about 'build up' on the inside corners. But I have to get this done so I will work thru it.

 

This may sound strange, but I don't want it to be really perfect, not that I could anyway at my skill level. I want all of the joinery solid and closed up square and flush, but I want it to look like it was hand made and not some mass produced piece. I want to set it in place and have it look like a 30 year old table that was well taken care of and that you won't run across another one like it often if at all. Does that make sense? Anyway I will post a picture if it in place in my daughter's home next week. I appreciate you indulging me.

 

    

Edited July 12, 20206 yr by junglejohn

1 hour ago, junglejohn said:

I may actually be able to call myself a craftsman someday down the road. 

Don't sell yourself short.  You made something from nothing and used your skillset to come up with a beautiful piece.  NICE!!!  Alot of people talk about making this or that, maybe even buy a few tools to get to it one day.  But YOU , actually did it.  That makes you a craftsman. 

 

So what you thinking about building next??

1 hour ago, junglejohn said:

This may sound strange, but I don't want it to be really perfect,

That's the way we like it, perfect is for Ethan Allen, let them take care of that department, you and I get to do "hand made" and with all the beautiful imperfections that comes along with hand made.

On 7/10/2020 at 11:00 PM, Gunny said:

So have I, and wondered why not?  Shop projects are a great proving ground for such things.

Indeed, including the finishing part. That was something Howard Acheson (another finishing guru who stopped visiting many forums) used to mention.

JJ - that is one beautiful piece of furniture that you've made!  I've no doubt but that the Waterlox is going to be a great finish for it and will do you proud.

 

BTW - welcome aboard, glad to have you here.  Feel free to post up more pics of your work, it sure looks like craftsmanship to me

And congrats on retirement!

In answer to your question Gunny, my next project which is in the design phase is a small bow front hall desk with a drawer which I picture in my mind as made primarily from walnut with maple accents. I love the contrast between those two woods. I at first thought mahogany but I have a couple of hundred board feet of S3S 7/8 thick walnut waiting for a calling. I picture a small brass lamp with a green shade, a diminutive vase with flowers and a hall mirror behind it - perhaps a couple old leather bound books - classics like Dickens or Hawthorne. I figure you need to know the destination before you can plan the journey. I have done projects with curved edges but never with a curved surface and I like exploring. Strangely, all of my projects, as I look back, are all dis-similar. I have no idea where they come from but I latch onto something, visualize it and just take that path until it ends. 

4 hours ago, junglejohn said:

I figure you need to know the destination before you can plan the journey.

  I would admit that the planning stuff for me tends to be more of a suggestion that exactly followed.  Mostly I work of the seat of my pants as I go.    Once told a LT who asked what my plan was, "I'm just making it up as I go sir."  Yeah, he was less than pleased with my answer. 

 

Now when you do start a post as a Project in Progress.  You might find this useful.  I built a mini router table / cabinet drawer awhile back and the suggestions I got DURING the build made the final outcome way better than if I had just stumbled along to my own devices.  Look through some of @steven newman 's post and you can get a real good idea of how he builds something and an explanation of why, plus how he dealt with issues along the way.    

 

Here is link to that build as an example.  Mini Router table

On 7/11/2020 at 3:40 PM, FlGatorwood said:

Gerald, do you have a preference to which wax is used where?  You stated Renaissance wax over finished turnings, but will other waxes work well?  What of paste wax on furniture?  And to rejuvenate the wax finish, do you wipe it down with mineral spirits to remove the old wax and apply a new coat?  Thanks. 

I have used Johnson's paste on tool beds . Briwax on woodturnings and some shellaced furniture. Then discovered Renaissance and by that time most of my furniture work was done. Not necessary to clean off od wax unless it is imbedded with dirt. Alcohol will disolve wax but then you cannot do that on shellac.

Gunny, I had to smile as I read the linked post. My recently ended career was as an engineer and mechanical designer. The past 27 years I owned an engineering and machine building company which I sold to my employees in March. We designed machines and systems for the auto and appliance industries. I smiled because the discussion in the post was the kind of discussions I have with the project managers, chief engineer and designers at the beginning of every project that came thru the company. We would sometimes spend days going over the concepts and preliminary designs. The more time we spent there the less design time, machining time and material it took and the more profit I made. Generally a full third of the assigned hours were spent there before a single production drawing was designed, drawn and issued. But to be honest by the time I left the customers office in the first meeting I had the machine or system pretty well visualized in my head. I had done almost all of it before. Different parts and assembly process but the fundamentals began to follow a pretty standard flow after years of experience. To be honest it got pretty repetitive and frankly somewhat routine to the to the point where the excitement and passion I felt earlier in my career diminished.  

 

I am hoping my wood work will reignite the passion of discovering new skills and a more passionate road to restore a sense of excitement again. What has begun this is the visualization of a picture or a vision if you will, such as my description of the bow front desk in its final destination. That gives me a clear cut goal which I get motivated to achieve. That is to make my work match my visualization. Better ways to do that, the techniques and processes will likely be beyond my limited knowledge and experience and that is were I will likely coming to you fine gentlemen for help. I expect I will be involving people here quite a lot especially after experiencing the generosity all of you have shown. I will warn you though that I can get caught up in some off-center thinking but that is part of the fun for me.

Edited July 13, 20206 yr by junglejohn

@junglejohn, having read your post and, marveled at your background, it easy to see why your posted project is so wonderfully accomplished.

As to your off center thinking, I'm sure you'll find quite a few like minded souls among this bunch. 

 

2 hours ago, junglejohn said:

I will warn you though that I can get caught up in some off-center thinking but that is part of the fun for me.

 

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

As to your off center thinking, I'm sure you'll find quite a few like minded souls among this bunch.

 

I often refer to this as thinking outside the box.  Case in point.  Built this twin table saw set up out of two Delta Contractors saws.  Was told it was insane, could not be done etc etc.  I actually designed this in my head over the course of 3 years while in Iraq.  Drawing it up a little at a time.  Once home I finally got the time this was my production of that vision.

 

 

 

Do the cops still pull it over for no license plates, or working headlights?

Gunny, That is quite the setup. Solid creativity and execution. BTW thanks for your service. I did my three tours a few decades earlier  humping it in a place not quite as hot but much wetter and muddier. It had to be tough duty over there.One of the similarities I see was the inability to tell friend from foe. Welcome back.