finishing wood wine stoppers

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mdwilliams999

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Apr 18, 2011
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Location
Glenville, NY
I normally use CA for all my wood pens and can get a good and consistent finish. I was recently asked if I would start making wood wine stoppers for a local museum with the wood from a tree that had to be taken down. It was a Lindy tree (bass wood). I have tried to use CA and I can get a good finish, but with a lot of work. It's a lot harder to polish up CA when you have corners to deal with.

I was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions. I'm trying to find that sweet spot between cheap and easy but low quality and expensive, time consuming but great results. If this works out for the museum (and me) this could be a long term thing - they have a lot of wood.

I liked the CA because it creates that hard outer shell and protects the soft bass wood, but I'm sure there has to be other options that will work without taking a long time to dry etc.

Open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Mike
 
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I've dipped a few larger turnings in Polycrylic with good results. And lacquer, of course, but it takes so much longer to cure. You can buff the polycrylic in about 2 days. Lacquer would take at least a week.

You could also try Chris' plexiglass finish. A simple search of the site should get you what you need there.
 
I've turned a lot of stoppers but still have not found a finish I'm 'set' on.. Done the ca, poly, lacquer, friction. Out of those I preferred lacquer. I did get a chance to work with 'wood turners finish' this weekend. I didn't work with any stoppers but next time I do I think I'm going to try it. It came out very well on a couple small projects I did. That being said, think it would still depend on the shape of stopper. Anything with a lot of grooves or recess areas would probably be a pain just like CA.
 
I've made quite a few stoppers, and most have been finished with WOP. I wanted a hard finish that would stand up to knocking around in a drawer, and that would be totally waterproof and resist degradation by alcohol. And obviously, I wanted something that would be reasonably inexpensive and easy to apply. WOP meets all of those criteria, and it looks nice.

I have deviated from that practice only twice - on stoppers made from wood with a strong grain pattern, and where the design include a captive ring (which would be complicated to finish with WOP). In those cases I've used Tung Oil.
 
Haven't tried personally as of yet, but the old man down at my local wood shop nagged me on and on to buy wood turners finish. The bottle stopper he showed me he had done earlier in the week looked outstanding! Granted it didn't have the depth like CA gives, but was impressive enough for me to get the "big" sized bottle. One thing he did mention the chemical was originally designed for hardwood floors, so the durability is unmatched.

Best of luck, keep us posted!

Merry Christmas!

~Kendall
 
Hi Mike,

I've had pretty good success with a product called Crystalac. It is a waterbased finish that is very tough and is alcohol resistant once fully cured.
 
finishing

I've always used a homemade friction polish 1/3 blo 1/3 denatured alcohol 1/3 clear shellac shake it up before use. put it on with the lathe off and then turn the lathe on applying friction to bake in the finish (use a shop towel).
 
monophoto said:
I've made quite a few stoppers, and most have been finished with WOP. I wanted a hard finish that would stand up to knocking around in a drawer, and that would be totally waterproof and resist degradation by alcohol. And obviously, I wanted something that would be reasonably inexpensive and easy to apply. WOP meets all of those criteria, and it looks nice.

I have deviated from that practice only twice - on stoppers made from wood with a strong grain pattern, and where the design include a captive ring (which would be complicated to finish with WOP). In those cases I've used Tung Oil.
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I use WOP as well.
 
I've used both Doctor's Woodshop Pens Plus and a homemade blend of 1/3 blo, 1/3 DNA, 1/3 dewaxed shellac on wood bottle stoppers and candlesticks with good results.
 
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