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Finishing Touch: Film finishes
Finishing Touch: Waterborne finishes
Shellac
Finishing Touch: Shellac – a no-fuss finish
Shellac mixing chart
Shellac: The best finish ever?
French polishing
How to apply a beautiful shellac finish (video)
Hardwax oil
General finishing
Finishing Touch: Introduction to wood finishing
Why apply a finish (video)
General Finishing Tips (video)
Brushes for applying a finish
Finishing products
WoodEssence.com (Shellac flakes)
Woodchuckers.com (Seal Lac and Royal Lac pre-mixed shellac)
Osmo.ca (HWO) source: LeeValley.com
Rubio Monocoat (HWO) source: WoodShedLumber.com
General articles
Routing Basics – Part 1
Routing Basics – Part 2: The Router
Top 10 tips for using a router – Part 1
Top 10 ways to amp up your router game – Part 2
Mid-sized routers
Know your tools: Fixed base routers
Know your tools: Trim routers
Router bits
Routing Basics – Part 3: Straight Bits
Routing Basics – Part 4: Edge Profiling Bits
Routing Basics – Part 5: Joinery Bits
Routing Basics – Part 6: Specialty Bits
Router jigs
3 simple (yet essential) shop-made router jigs
Template Routing
Dustless routing is at hand!
Routing Bits, Jigs and Accessories
Posters
Router Bits – Profile/Edge Treatment
Router Bits – Specialty
Router Bits – Straight
Videos
Types of routers
Six essential router tips
Two shop made router jigs
Introduction to router bits
Router bit types – specialty bits
Router bit types – standard bits
Router table split fence
Our free live webinars provide you with practical woodworking information and advice. The series is hosted by Lara Finley, with over 20 years of woodworking and home improvement experience. Her company, Her Rough Hands Inc, designs and builds fine furniture, custom built-ins, and personalized home decor for clients.
Looking to take your woodworking to another level? Join studio furniture maker and Canadian Woodworking magazine editor Rob Brown for tips and techniques to make you a better woodworker.
Linseed oil and Tung oil are plant-based oils that cure by exposure to oxygen rather than by evaporation. Both of these oil finishes darken as they age.
Linseed oil (also known as flaxseed oil) is available in three formats. Raw linseed oil is not useful as a finish because it takes a long time to dry to the touch and can take weeks for each coat to cure. Boiled linseed oil (BLO) contains drying compounds (petroleum-based or heavy metals) and is not as environmentally or personally safe. Polymerized linseed oil (PLO), which is oil heated in the absence of oxygen, is pure, non-toxic, dries quickly, and produces a sheen finish with a slight yellow tint that is more visible on light-colored woods.
Tung oil is also available as Pure tung oil and Polymerized tung oil. Pure tung oil can be used as a finish—apply thin coats, wipe down each coat thoroughly, and sand between coats. At least 5 or 6 coats are recommended, allowing a week’s drying time between each coat. Similar to PLO, polymerized tung oil dries faster than the pure version. Some brands contain drying compounds. Polymerized tung oil tends to impart a warm, amber hue to wood surfaces and cures to a natural matte to low-satin finish. Tung oil dries somewhat harder than linseed oil and has better water resistance. Beware that some finishes labeled as “tung oil” are actually varnish thinned with mineral spirits.
Teak oil is not a plant-based oil. It is a generic name for any oil that contains a mixture of mineral oil, linseed oil, tung oil, or an oil and varnish blend.
For more information about tung oil read: Tung Oil: debunking the myths
Rasps, files, and rifflers are tools used for shaping and smoothing wood, each differing in construction and typical use.
A rasp has individually raised, coarse, cone-shaped teeth, making it the most aggressive of the three, designed to remove material quickly. It leaves a surface that is rougher compared to that left by a file. Rasps are available in various shapes, sizes, and coarseness grades, such as flat, half-round, and round. Cabinet rasps have a fine tooth pattern, wood rasps have coarser teeth and four-in-one (also called four-in-hand) rasps have different teeth patterns and shapes on each side.
A file, on the other hand, has low, tightly spaced rows of teeth cut into its surface. Straight-cut (also called single-cut) files have parallel rows of teeth, while cross-cut (also called double-cut) files have rows running at opposing angles, delivering a more aggressive cut. Although a file can be used on wood for more precise shaping and smoothing, it is typically used on metal since the teeth tend to clog quickly with wood fibers. Like rasps, files come in various shapes and sizes, including flat, round, half-round, triangular, and square.
A riffler has variously shaped cutting surfaces on both ends, with a handle in the middle. File-cut rifflers have long lines of teeth, while rasp-cut rifflers have pointy teeth. They are primarily used for shaping concave and convex surfaces. There are eight traditional styles available in different lengths, proportional to the coarseness of the cutting surfaces.
