>Yesterday was SWMBO�s birthday! I made her a present. It�s a cherry, Salsa and Chip Bowl. The dimensions are 13� wide and 2 �� high.
Next week is the real present. We go to Arizona for a week. Our son�s birthday is Feb. 22nd and mine is March 7th. He lives in California, so we are all meeting in Tucson at my sister in-law�s house to celebrate our birthdays. Can anyone suggest any places of interest to a woodturner in Arizona? We will be in Tucson, Phoenix and Green Valley.
>Here is a shot from the side. There were a lot of splits in the sapwood on the outside edge. I opted for the ogee shape to get rid of the cracks and keep most of the diameter of the blank. It's finished with Mike Mahoney Walnut Oil. I�ll wax it after the oil has been on for a while.
BTW what is the difference from Mike Mahoney's walnut oil and walnut oil from the grocery store?
I made a salad bowl for home and finished with grocery store walnut oil. After using it for a couple of months wife said she thought the walnut oil smelled a little rancid - I didn't think so. She decided to wash the bowl under the faucet with luke warm water. She finished washing and handed me the bowl and as she did so there was a loud cracking noise as the bowl developed a large crack - firewood now. The wood was well seasoned birch.
>Here is a link to Mike's page where he sells it and describes it. WoodCraft started carrying it, that is where I got mine. I just started using it so I don't know how it will hold up. Also I'm not sure how long it takes to harden. I know it's longer than 24 Hrs. though. I've been thinking of ordering the Oil Wax mix also. I like the idea of a repairable finish for functional items.
>There are two kinds of Walnut Oil, the one where the liquid molecules link together through polymerization to form the larger solid molecule, and the one where they don't.
Walnut Oil that is sold as a finish, either from Mahoney, an art supply store, or other source will polymerize into a solid.
The Walnut Oil sold in the grocery store as a salad oil is generally processed to stay as an oil in the liquid form. Would you buy it as a salad oil if it didn't?? If you do find an oil that is otherwise on the grocery store shelves, you just got lucky, and forming a gummy sludge is not a cured finish.
All nut or vegetable oils that do not polymerize into a solid will turn to some degree of "rancid" with time. The only one that I have found in the grocery store that doesn't is SUNflower Oil.
What do you think of Walnut Oil compared to the other oils? It doesn't seem to impart as much color as a lot of other oils, which I like. I guess I want to know how it holds up?
