Finishing Camphorwood

[Logrod]

I discovered a half turned bowl blank made of camphorwood in the chaos of my garage/workshop the other day which I decided to finish. A beautiful aroma when turning it (I decided to forgo the use of a mask - possibly stupid, but you only live once and in the greater scheme of things probably no worse than the half bottle of red I shall wash the dust down with later this evening!). It leaves the question though of how to finish the bowl in order to stand any chance of benefiting from the smell in the future - any suggestions?

[se7enthdevil]

the only way i can think of is to sand it to such a grade that you can no longer see sanding marks and buff it with it's own shavings.

 

i think any oil wax or other finish would mask the smell.

 

be interested to find out what you end up doing and if any smell is indeed masked as i have 6 planks @ 12" X 2" X 60" of the stuff which are either going to be resawn for furniture or turned in to bowl blanks.

[Logrod]

Yep, that's what I thought Not sure that I'll get the grain contrast and colour really coming out with just buffing but would be a shame to lose the smell. Wondering if I might finish just the inside or outside to get a balance of colour and smell but that's not ideal either. It's on my desk as I type and the smell is so strong I'm almost getting a high from it!

[Chippy]

Once got told you can burnish with a brass rod but not tried it myself, might be worth a go on the underneath.

[se7enthdevil]

considering the wood is sooo pungent maybe the smell will persist?

[Logrod]

Thank you both for the encouragement. I ended up just buffing with mixed shavings (from the pile under the lathe!) at v high speed and got a great finish ( good enough to show all the defects due to my poor turning at any rate). I still have the odour and have collected a bag of camphor wood shavings for later use.

[se7enthdevil]

lets see a pic then mate

[Logrod]

I was afraid you'd ask for that

 

well here goes ...the bowl is better than the photo but I would say that!

 

 

 

I achieved the black lines on the rim by applying more pressure while burnishing on the sharp edges.

[se7enthdevil]

looks good

 

i'll have to get one of my planks out and see how well i can do...

[Woodworks]

I was afraid you'd ask for that

 

well here goes ...the bowl is better than the photo but I would say that!

 

 

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I achieved the black lines on the rim by applying more pressure while burnishing on the sharp edges.

 

Very nice Logrod

The black line on the rim really sets it off.