Thread: traditional carpenters bench , what finish to use !

I used several coats of boiled linseed oil. Protects the surface really well but if it needs a touch up, just clean it off and wipe on another coat.
A varnish or poly finish will get damaged and is not easy to repair or recoat.

Originally Posted by NCArcher

I used several coats of boiled linseed oil. Protects the surface really well but if it needs a touch up, just clean it off and wipe on another coat.
A varnish or poly finish will get damaged and is not easy to repair or recoat.

At what temp do you take the oil to ? boiling point or a simmer and i imagine you use a roller/paintbrush, would you use that for the whole bench or just the top section and varnish the supporting frame . thanks for the input.

No heating requiredPale BLO.jpg
Just slop it on with a rag. Let it sit for a minute and wipe off the excess.
Use it on the whole bench.

Definitely an oil finish. It makes it so much easier to remove ay drops of glue, and is easy to touch up.

Thanks very much guys for the tips, will give this a go, everybody at home thinks the bench is too pretty to be working on just for wood work, my motherinlaw is trying to pinch it for a outdoor kitchen bench lol, so they rather shocked when i say, no way, working bench only, going to be used for what its designed for.
My intention is for this to be a inherited piece to my kids hopefully, but in the meantime when its finally done it will get at least anotehr 20 years service first

Originally Posted by NCArcher

No heating requiredPale BLO.jpg
Just slop it on with a rag. Let it sit for a minute and wipe off the excess.
Use it on the whole bench.

Learn something new everyday, i had linseed oil at home but didnt know you can get it boiled like that, right bunnings here i come .

Several Internet gurus recommend NO finish on the working surface of the top as any finish will reduce the friction between the job and the bench top, plus there is a small possibility with oil finishes that some of the finish may manage to transfer to the job if it hasn't 'dried' completely. Then when you want to refinish the benchtop a decade or so down the line you have to plane off the top and recoat it again (or not).

You may also want to look at 'toothing' the bench top (with a toothing blade in your plane) and softwood bench tops on a hardwood bench which is favoured by some hand woodworkers.

Modern 'boiled' linseed oil is just loaded with metal compounds that make it polymerize quickly when exposed to air - it can go off in the bottle, makes oil rags spontaneously combust and burn your shed/house down (REALLY!!!!). Also not suitable for internal use on humans (unless you want nasty medical treatments) although it should be good for cane toads, rats, mice and similar vermin.

Internet workbench gurus include Chris Schwarz, Roy Underhill, Peter Folansbee. Also check out the Popular Woodworking blog archives for posts by Chris Schwarz, Megan Fitzpatrick, Rob Lang etc.

Thanks very much for that info, i hadnt considered the friction factor when placing work on the top, makes sense now for sure, yes i looked into the MSDS of the linseed product and its properties last night, very interesting especially the flash point of old rags in the shop, straight in the bin those little buggers when done with.
Can you explain what toothing is !! have never heard that term before, cheers.

Originally Posted by bsrlee

Several Internet gurus recommend NO finish on the working surface of the top as any finish will reduce the friction between the job and the bench top, plus there is a small possibility with oil finishes that some of the finish may manage to transfer to the job if it hasn't 'dried' completely. Then when you want to refinish the benchtop a decade or so down the line you have to plane off the top and recoat it again (or not).

You may also want to look at 'toothing' the bench top (with a toothing blade in your plane) and softwood bench tops on a hardwood bench which is favoured by some hand woodworkers.

Modern 'boiled' linseed oil is just loaded with metal compounds that make it polymerize quickly when exposed to air - it can go off in the bottle, makes oil rags spontaneously combust and burn your shed/house down (REALLY!!!!). Also not suitable for internal use on humans (unless you want nasty medical treatments) although it should be good for cane toads, rats, mice and similar vermin.

Internet workbench gurus include Chris Schwarz, Roy Underhill, Peter Folansbee. Also check out the Popular Woodworking blog archives for posts by Chris Schwarz, Megan Fitzpatrick, Rob Lang etc.

Another here for BLO, it's simple, quick, no fuss, just ordinary raw Linseed Oil is ok as well but will take a bit longer to fully harden, wipe off with a dry rag after allowing to soak in a bit it will be fine.
This is my bench top, pic taken just after applying the oil so is a bit shiny, it is the same thing now but just matt.....
first coat BLO.jpg
I did the whole thing with oil, just one coat.
If I was worried about a workpiece becoming unstable and moving as a result of my oil finish on my bench, the work gets a dose of some form of clamp, dog/s, wedge, vise, tail vise, there is very little work I do on my bench that relies on friction alone.


Pete

Pit, question, when you drilled your bench dog holes, did you use a template and guide for the holes or free hand drill them ?

Originally Posted by pjt

Another here for BLO, it's simple, quick, no fuss, just ordinary raw Linseed Oil is ok as well but will take a bit longer to fully harden, wipe off with a dry rag after allowing to soak in a bit it will be fine.
This is my bench top, pic taken just after applying the oil so is a bit shiny, it is the same thing now but just matt.....
first coat BLO.jpg
I did the whole thing with oil, just one coat.
If I was worried about a workpiece becoming unstable and moving as a result of my oil finish on my bench, the work gets a dose of some form of clamp, dog/s, wedge, vise, tail vise, there is very little work I do on my bench that relies on friction alone.


Pete

Just poking my head in to mention the good ol' 1:1:1 finish.

1 part BLO
1 part Varnish - whatever you have at hand unless you want a particular color
1 part Turps

Splash on, reapply to dry spots as they appear, leave for a few minutes, wipe off excess, repeat a couple of times or until no more soaks in, leave for a couple of weeks (what I found anyway), then give it hell

Originally Posted by Pratty

Pit, question, when you drilled your bench dog holes, did you use a template and guide for the holes or free hand drill them ?

I used a 3/4" roundnose router bit to rout half a hole in one side of the join between two machined down floor joists, then repeated for the other half, aligned the half holes and glued together, the spacing is based on how far the holddown will reach, I did it this way as I thought it would be a big effort to for the drill to drill a 3/4" hole through 3" of hardwood for however many holes there are, this way the drill only cleaned up any misalignment/glue.
routing grrove for bench hold down.jpgclamped up boards.jpg



Pete

Why the one part varnish though, is that to give it some colour depth ?

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

Just poking my head in to mention the good ol' 1:1:1 finish.

1 part BLO
1 part Varnish - whatever you have at hand unless you want a particular color
1 part Turps

Splash on, reapply to dry spots as they appear, leave for a few minutes, wipe off excess, repeat a couple of times or until no more soaks in, leave for a couple of weeks (what I found anyway), then give it hell

Thanks Pjt, i see now what you mean, i have unfortunatly already laminated my top and all my pieces were only on average 380-420 mm lengths so you can imagine, it was a lot of facing and sanding each piece then each piece has min two bisciut in it both side's for extra strength, i had to do it in 3 sections then asemble it all together for the big one, so guessing i will use a forstner bit now and try and make a jig of some sort to keep it all straight.
Lesson learnt if i ever build another one lol. ) which wont be a in a hurry.
hoping to get some pictures on here soonish.

Originally Posted by pjt

I used a 3/4" roundnose router bit to rout half a hole in one side of the join between two machined down floor joists, then repeated for the other half, aligned the half holes and glued together, the spacing is based on how far the holddown will reach, I did it this way as I thought it would be a big effort to for the drill to drill a 3/4" hole through 3" of hardwood for however many holes there are, this way the drill only cleaned up any misalignment/glue.
routing grrove for bench hold down.jpgclamped up boards.jpg



Pete