Finishing Elm?

[Dave Dula]

I was wondering if anybody had any advice for finishing elm, I haven't finished many bowls because I have been just working on my skills and didn't want my perfectionist streak to get in the way but I think I want to finish this bowl.

My concern is the wood seems a bit porous (I have a a lot of this elm from a cut down tree but it is all pretty terrible with knots etc - but good for practice)

Photo of the bowl in question
pIMG_7705.jpg

[Scott Hackler]

I use Tung Oil a lot and for a warm glow without being too yellow, that is my choice. For a film finish it would be shellac as a sanding sealer, sanded back with some 400 and 5-6 coats of Wipe on Poly.

[John Keeton]

Dave, welcome to the "posting" side of the creek! Nice work on the bowl, BTW. The elm will soak up finish, I suspect. If the bowl is going to be a utility bowl, walnut oil makes a nice renewable finish. It also is nice to use as a sanding lubricant as a part of the finishing process. Tung oil is an excellent finish, as well, and probably can be renewed easily, though I have not tried that.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Colored waxes work well on open grain woods. You can use shoe polish or color your own. Just make sure to seal the wood with a flim finish prior to applying the wax. That will prevent it from migrating into hard wood areas. You can apply more spray finish after the wax has cured. I steel wool it before the final coats of lacquer.

[John Thorson]

Elm fruit bowl, five years old finished with nothing but walnut oil and beeswax. My favorite utility bowl finish too.
fruit bowl.jpg

[Jeff Nicol]

Dave, I have been turning a lot of Red Elm of late, but it is some wood that is bone dry from standing dead for about 5 years. It has a very nice texture compared to wood that has more moisture in it, and the grain is beautiful and accepts any of the oil finishes well. With most of the elms they can have an irridesence in them and the oil brings that out very well so danish oil, tung oil finish (contains varnish)or pure tung oil will do the trick. The thing with pure tung oil is that it takes a fairly long time to dry compared to the others I mentioned. But like others have said if it is going to be a daily utility/fruit/bread etc bowl, the walnut oil, mineral oil bees wax mix or other "Salad" bowl oil type finishes will work best. If you are looking to fill in all the pores and attempt a gloss finish, that will take many coats of sanding sealer (shellac) or using oil and wet/dry paper using the oil to create a slurry that will fill the pores and after a few coats of this you can start putting on Lacquer to build up the finish to a high shine. This might take a couple weeks to get a perfect surface so be prepared for a lot of waiting and drying time to reach your goal.

Good luck and keep posting new pictures,

Jeff

[Dave Dula]

I decided to go with walnut oil and a wax finish. There was some tear out and other spots and the walnut oil gave me plenty of opportunity to fix problems.

This is my first bowl that has gone from log in the back yard all the way to finished bowl so i am quite happy with the end result, the elm itself isn't the best but hey free wood (lots of cracks and knots)

Here is the almost finished bowl

elm_bowl_small.jpg

Thanks for all of the suggestions

Dave

[Paul Engle]

I did a 12 in bowl my wife uses for salad .. I treat it with mineral oil as it is a utility piece.