Mark Shafer's oil/beeswax gel finish

[Conan the Librarian]

Wooddorkers,

Mark sent me a sample of his product as he promised. I have only had the opportunity to sample it on a scrap piece of curly koa so far, and I must say, it looks nice. It has a nice thick consistency, smells good and goes on very smoothly. It popped the grain on the koa as well as expected. I will give it another coat tomorrow to see how it looks.

I will need to try it on some real projects to see how it covers, and what it looks like after it has aged a bit, but so far so good. I looks like it would work especially nicely for bowls and such. I am a big fan of the Tried & True finishes, so that will be my point of comparison.

I know he basically spammed the newsgroup with his product announcement, but it looks like he has come up with a nice finish. I'll post again when I have had the chance to experiment some more.

Chuck Vance

[Larry Jaques]

On 23 Feb 2004 17:09:44 -0800, [e-mail] (Conan the Librarian) brought forth from the murky depths:

What about fingerprints? That has always been my biggest gripe about beeswax finishes. They never buff well enough to keep from showing fingerprints and hand smears. That's why I opted for the T&T Varnish Oil instead of their beez original finish.

-- If it weren't for jumping to conclusions some of us wouldn't get any exercise.

- Jump-free website programming

[Conan the Librarian]

Hmmm ... I've never noticed a problem with fingerprints. I've used T&T's original on several bowls and other small carvings with no problems (and these are the sorts of things that beg to be handled). Heck, I even used the stuff on my workbench.

Are you sure you're following the directions correctly, Lar? :-)

Chuck Vance

[Nova]

Larry, if you'd pay for the pieces you wouldn't have to worry about fingerprints. ;-)

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)