seal inside of chest???

A suggestion for you

Ellis Walentine

>If it were me, I would not finish the inside of the chest with an oil finish. I would brush on a couple really dilute coats of shellac and then kiss the surfaces with some very fine stearated sandpaper and wax it. In my experience, oils and varnishes smell up the insides of carcases and chests and drawers.

To me, the reason to use a long oil finish like pure tung oil (is that what you're talking about?) is to penetrate and saturate the color of the piece and bring out the figure in the wood. On the inside, where smells and bleed through are not welcome, I'd stick with a finish that protects from dirt but not much else.

Ellis Walentine, Host

Ditto. No need to oil the inside.

doug f, san clemente, ca

>

Agree with Ellis

Rob Sandow

>Lately I have used just a single coat of Varathane water borne poly on the insides of cabinets and drawers. The concern with stored fabrics is getting them caught on raised wood grain. The water poly locks the wood fibers but does raise the grain some. So then I hit it quickly with some 220 sandpaper in a random orbit sander to smooth it and I'm done. This works really well. The inside is really smooth, reasonably well protected, and not smelly.

Rob

Ditto again . . .

Ted Wong

>Tung oil can go rancid in an enclosed box and the smell is not pleasant.

Re: seal inside of chest???

Dean Lapinel

>Sorry...in a rush...from your question, Seal inside of chest- I know there is a heart. Next time I club a baby seal I'll look more closely...gotta go-

Re: A suggestion for you

Robert R Clough - Thorncraft

>I agree that it must be "finished" to some extent. I have always done the inside as I do the outside. Perhaps this is unnecessary, but I remember being told by an old woodworker (and now I'm that also!) that the inside was as important as the outside.

No reason at all that you can't sand the inside of

Don Henthorn

>of a chest as smooth as a baby's but. If you do that there is no chance of anything snagging on roughness inside. No finisj is alwasy better than a finish inside a chest. As Ellis suggests a thin shellac inside followed by fin ne sanding will give a good finish. A good wax over a well sanded interior will also work. Check the smell of a lot of the old furniture where the maker finished the inside of chests, drawers, etc like he finished the outside. Yuk!!!

Important, yes...

Ellis Walentine

>...but that doesn't mean it has to be finished with the same materials. The important thing is to try to balance the permeability of the finishes, inside and out. That is what keeps the wood from warping and doing all the other things it would do if the faces could breathe differently.

A shellac and wax finish will seal the inside of the box as well as oil will seal the outside.

Ellis