📙 Understanding Wood Finishing

No myth in wood finishing is more ingrained in the psyche of woodworkers than the belief that oil and varnish finishes containing metallic driers are unsafe to eat off of, or to be chewed on by children. Woodworking magazines have gone to great lengths to spread this myth, recommending raw linseed oil, tung oil, semi-curing walnut oil, shellac (a natural resin), and products labeled “salad bowl finish” as the safe alternatives.