Bottle Topper Finishes

[Ray Meche]

I have been turning pens with good success, but I have the itch to do bottle toppers. For my pens I do the following finish procedure.

- Step down from 150 sand to 320-400
- Myland's Sanding Sealer
- Knock down with 400
- Repeat Sealer & 400
- Micromesh step from 1500 to 12000
- 3 coats of Myland's Friction Polish
- 2 coats of carnuba wax buffed

For the bottle toppers I am leary about the shellac based friction polish. I have seen a few people recommending against shellac as alcohol can dissolve the finish. What are people using to finish their bottle toppers? I emailed Myland's and haven't gotten a response so I don't expect them to get back to me. I would prefer to finish on the lather like pens, but that may not be an option. Thanks ahead of time for the ideas.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ray I finish mine with rattle can spray lacquer. Haven't had a problem yet.

[Richard Madison]

Same here.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Ray

I make and sell alot of stoppers. Here is my process

Sand to 600
Seal with Deft Laquer cut 50/50 with Laquer thinner
Cut with EEE
Polish with Mylands friction polish
Coat with Trewax or Briwax, give it 5 minutes to dry and buff

Applies to hard exotics and stabilized blanks that will be monuted on stainless hardware. No Complaints and lots of repeat customers.

Frank

[Ben Gastfriend]

I use minwax wipe on poly and buff em. That is after sanding to 600 and burnishing, of course.

[Doug M Jones]

I'm with Bernie. I use Deft spray laquer. I ran a 3/8" 16tpi carraige bolt through a scrap of plywood. Thats the size of the bottle stoppers I've been using. After sanding through all the grits of micromesh on the lathe, I screw them onto the carraige bolt and spin them on a little lazy susan while it put several light coats of laquer 30 minutes or so apart. Let them sit a few days before Beal buffing and they shine like glass.

[Ron McKinley]

Same here but sometimes I use Watco natural. I normally don't sand above 400 grit. ..........Ron

[Ron McKinley]

I thought I was answering Ben and Minwax Poly. I use Watco and Poly on different woods—guess it depends on the mood I'm in.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ray,

I use the following:



I sand through 400. Then I take a folded paper towel with a small amount of BLO on it and friction it onto the wood. With a dry paper towel, I friction the BLO (b/s should be hot from frictioning). Then using a paper towel I put on a coat of dewaxed shellac. Let it spin for 90 seconds or so and then use a dry paper towel to friction it. Then I apply a coat of Deft brushing lacquer. Let it spin for 90 seconds or so and then friction it. with a dry paper towel. Then appy a 2nd coat and friction it.

Cover the bed with a paper towel before you start.

[Wayne Cannon]

I'll vouch for the fact that shellac-based friction polish will NOT survive spilled wine. It got a long drenching laying overnight in a wine spill in the fridge, and despite noticeable degradation in the finish, it still came through surprisingly well.

How often is that likely to happen? Not often is my bet!

[John Terefenko]

Wayne

Did the wine spill because the bottle stopper did not hold??? What type stopper was it???

[Wayne Cannon]

It was based on a rubbery plastic stopper with multiple "vanes" sold by Woodcraft. The outside diameter of the vanes tapers slightly from bottom to top. I suspect that the stopper was not fully inserted. The bottle was lying on its side in the refrigerator, and when we opened it the next morning, the stopper was out of the bottle and lying in a puddle of wine on the shelf. They aren't as tight as a cork, but they still seem to be more than adequately snug.