What goes on the wood, and what it asks of you later
Three finish routes leave this bench, and the order names which one a piece takes. Oil is the default on anything that meets food, wax goes over oil where a softer hand is wanted, and lacquer is kept for desk pieces that never see a sink. Each route is set out below with the coats it takes, the days it needs and the way it is kept up once it is yours.
Sanding is common to all three. Three grits run along the grain and finish at 240, the arris on every edge is broken by hand, and end grain gets one extra pass. A finish only ever looks as good as the face under it, which is why the sanding takes longer than the coating does.
The three routes, start to cured
Route one — hardening oil
A food-safe hardening oil that cures inside the timber rather than sitting on top of it. It is the route every serving board and carving board takes, and the one we would choose for a riser that lives on a busy desk. The cured film is thin, so the board still feels like wood under the hand, and a scratch can be sanded out and re-oiled without stripping the whole face.
- The board is wiped down and left to stand, so the dust from sanding drops out of the grain.
- Coat one is flooded onto the end grain first, then wiped thin across both faces and all four edges.
- The surplus comes off with a clean cloth before it goes tacky, which is the step that decides the finish.
- Coat two follows a full day later, with the ends flooded again while the grain is still open.
- Coat three goes on thinner still, then the piece stands for three days before it is wrapped.
Once at home it wants a fresh coat every few months at first, then whenever water stops beading on the face. Wipe a thin coat on, leave it twenty minutes, take the surplus off, and give it a day before it meets food again.
Route two — oil, then wax
Two coats of the same hardening oil, then a hard wax buffed in once the oil has cured. The wax adds a soft sheen and a slight resistance to finger marks, so it is the route the docking trays take. It is not a route for a board that goes into a sink, since hot water lifts wax long before it troubles the oil beneath.
- Coats one and two of oil go on exactly as route one, with a full day between them.
- The piece stands for two days, so the oil is hard before anything is buffed over it.
- Wax is worked in along the grain with a cloth, thinly, one small area at a time.
- It is left for twenty minutes, then buffed back with a clean cloth until the sheen is even.
Keeping it up is a matter of a wax buff two or three times a year, and a wipe with a barely damp cloth in between. Once the wax stops holding a sheen, a light pass with the oil first brings the depth back.
Route three — lacquer
A clear lacquer sprayed in thin coats, cut back between them, for desk pieces asked to shrug off a spilled coffee. It sits on the surface as a film, so it protects more and repairs less: a deep scratch means cutting the film back over the whole face. We use it on risers and tray bases where a wipe-clean surface matters more than the feel of bare timber.
- The piece is sanded to 240, de-nibbed and blown clean, since a lacquer film shows every speck.
- A thin sealing coat goes on and is left for an hour to flash off.
- It is cut back by hand with a fine abrasive, then two more coats follow at hourly intervals.
- The film cures for four days before the piece is wrapped, so it hardens fully in its own air.
Care is a damp cloth and nothing more. Solvent cleaners and scouring pads both haze the film, so anything stubborn comes off with warm water and patience instead.
The coat schedule, laid out in days
The finishing days sit inside the lead time on each catalogue line, so a carving board quoted at ten working days spends five of them under oil. This is the schedule we work to, and it is the reason an order cannot be pulled forward by much.
Days at the bench, by route — a guide only, since a cold workshop slows every coat
| Route |
Coats |
Between coats |
Standing before wrapping |
| Hardening oil | Three | One full day | Three days |
|---|
| Oil, then wax | Two of oil, one of wax | One full day, then two | One day |
|---|
| Lacquer | One sealer, two build | One hour | Four days |
|---|
Cold slows curing more than anything else in the workshop, so a board finished in February stands a day longer than the same board in July. Where an order has a date on it, we say at the outset which route fits inside it.
Washing, drying and the first year
A board wants warm water, a little soap and a cloth, worked along the grain and dried straight away. Standing water is the thing that opens end grain, which is why a board is stood on edge to dry rather than left flat on a wet worktop. The small carving board is sized to lie inside a sink bowl, so it can be washed without flooding the run.
Through its first year a new board drinks more oil than it will afterwards. Water stops beading after a few weeks of daily use, and that is the sign to put another thin coat on. After the first year an oiled board usually asks for a coat two or three times a year, which takes about ten minutes of actual work.
Heat and dryness matter as much as water. A board left on a radiator shelf or against a hot oven door will lose moisture from one face faster than the other, so it cups. Keeping a board flat on a worktop, or stood on edge in a rack, lets both faces breathe at the same rate and holds it true.
Marks are part of a working board. Knife lines on a carving face darken with oil and settle into the surface, so a board that has been used reads differently from one still in its paper. Where a mark goes deeper than the oil, the face can be sanded back to 240 and re-oiled, and it returns looking close to new.
Bringing a tired board back
Any board that came off this bench can come back to it. Send the order reference to workshop@thehrdwood.store with a photograph of the face, and we will say whether it wants a re-oil, a sand and re-oil, or a skim on the thicknesser first. The workshop file holds the original sizes, so a refinished board leaves within a millimetre of the figures it was cut to.
A re-oil is the usual answer. The board is washed, dried for a day, sanded lightly along the grain and given two fresh coats with the ends flooded. Where a face has gone grey or a groove has picked up a stain, the whole face comes back to bare timber first, which loses a fraction of a millimetre of thickness.
A cupped board is the harder case. Light cupping flattens on the thicknesser at the cost of a millimetre or so, and severe cupping means the board has dried unevenly for a long time. We say honestly which one it is once it is in our hands, since a board that has lost too much thickness is better remade than chased.
The same applies to a piece that arrived damaged, or that does not match the order we confirmed. E-mail the workshop with the reference and a photograph, and we collect it at our own cost and either remake it or refund it.