After searching the old posts on finishes for reel seats I thought I might ask if there are new products being used by the reel seat turning community. I looked at a couple of suppliers mentioned by Tom and saw some new finish options.
1. Tru oil still a good option for most wood?
2. permagloss?
3. what new urethane coatings if any?
4. what woods do not require finish or reject finishing and can be buffed --not referring to stabilized wood
5. Does stabilization make soft/powdery and perhaps inherently weak wood into a solid usable stock like a pure synthetic turning stock.?
6. What techniques and products for filling small imperfections. I have seen some specific products for pen turning and I am wondering if this can also be used.
I have Andy Dear's DVD and have noted his finishing technique for stabilized wood.

I would like to get my finish on board first this time and not after the piece is screwed up.
thanks
john kepka


John
God bless the troops and USA

1 - Yes.

2 - Yes, but more finicky to work with.

3 - Plenty of new water based types - not my first choice, however.

4 - Most in the Rosewood family. Ebony, Rosewood, Cocobolo.

5 - Yes, but you don't want to start with "bad" wood to begin with.

6 - Many types of fillers plus the cyanocrylic adhesives are very popular amoung turners.

........

I still like to do a "pre-finish" on unstabilized wood. I submerge the turned and sanded insert in a jar with either watco oil or varnish thinned about half and half with paint thinner. I leave it submerged for a couple of days or longe, then take it out and throughly wipe all the excess off and let it dry for a couple of days. then I fine sand it again and finish it, usually with tru-oil.

cyanocrylic will fill small cracks. You can generally still see them, though. You need to get some glue in the crack and then squeeze it somehow(clamps, rubber band strips, etc) to actually close the crack. You got to do it pretty quick with the crazy glue.

Epoxy glue with a dye is a good filler for imperfections that are not "cracks".

I don't use stabilized wood very often, mainly because of the cost and the fact that I have a hard time finding it in dimensions big enough for grips also. I use Tru-Oil on everything I turn, even the rosewoods. For the rosewoods, I turn them, then submerge them in Denatured Alcohol, which pulls the oils out. Leaving the wood submerged for a couple hours will usually do the trick. Then, I finish it like I finish everything else--multiple coats of Tru-Oil.

I use super glue (i.e. cyanoacrylate) to fill any major voids in my wood. With especially finicky wood, I'll coat with superglue, let dry, turn down slightly past the superglue, coat with superglue again, turn down. . ., etc. Then, when I'm finished turning, I coat with multiple coats of Tru-Oil.

Regarding the filling of minor imperfections and open grain, Andy Dear has a dynamite technique for this. Turn your wood down to shape, then sand. Now, coat the whole thing with Tru-Oil. Let the finish almost dry--it needs to be a little tacky. Then, take sandpaper (I use 400 grit) on a sanding block and sand a little along the grain. The Tru-Oil mixed with the sawdust will create a little bit of a slurry. This slurry will fill the open grain. When the Tru-Oil dries, re-sand and check your open grain. Usually, you'll need to do the slurry trick several times before all the grain will be filled. It's a little time-consuming, but well worth the effort, especially on a really pretty piece of Claro Walnut.