Am I crazy??

[Eoinfitzz]

Hi there,
I'm getting this red gum slab to make as a Dining room table, I'm a sheety by trade with limited experience working with timber, sooooo my question is..... Is a suitable oiled finish achievable by a woodworking novice?

[Christos]

...... Is a suitable oiled finish achievable by a woodworking novice?

I would think so. There are a number of options to applying an oil finish on a table. You can scroll through this forum to read on a few.

Personally I have not tried this but might suggest taking a look at this thread. https://www.woodworkforums.com/f9/ref...ing-oil-203246.

[Ross]

Start with the handbook. U-Beaut Polishes

Ross

[themage21]

Using HBO I made a cot for my first born. Has stood up to everything she could throw (up) at it, thankfully no chewing on the rails (I made them too thick for little mouths).

When No. 2 arrived late last year, I had to adjust the bed back up to the top setting so it was easier on the back. While it was partly disassembled, I went over it to see if there were any issues. Other than some minor scratches where around some metal fixings (my fault), the only issue was where we hadn't dusted and the dust had taken the shine off the finish. Problem fixed with a good hard rub down followed by a much gentler rub with a rag and HBO. If it wasn't for the amount of disassembly that my design would require, I would've given it a quick run with a 4000 pad after the oil application as well. That'd be no issue with a table.

Other than that, the finish is still smooth and has the low sheen shine that I left it with when I put it together 3 years ago. The grain really came out in all of the timbers, but note that everything did take a shade or two darker (e.g. Vic Ash turned honey coloured), so depending on how that slab you've got cleans up, it may be a little dark, but given the example that LGS has in the thread linked above, I reckon you'll be ok. If you've got an offcut of the timber, try it on that first.

All this and it was only the first time I had ever used HBO in anger and was the first major furniture project and my first oil finish on something other than scrap.

I could be proven wrong on this, but HBO is only good if you have flat surfaces because you need to put the ROS over the piece (hand sanding does not cut it). There's probably a way, but I'm not sure how you'd ROS a natural edge to the point where the oil would get hot enough.

HBO was dead easy to use with LGS's instructions. Only thing was the number of sanding pads required and the sanding time on all the little fiddly bits (also not likely to be an issue if you have a big a*** table and legs).

Whichever way you go, good luck.