This weeks project is a trial piece, I'm trying a new coating for my Coffee Mugs, the food safe coating is a type of hard wax oil. I will be assessing the durability of the wax oil over the next couple of months, if it works it will be used on all my turnings which come into contact with food / drinks. Reason for this is to decrease production times, the Tung oil I use at the moment just takes too long to apply and cure (about a month)

The mug is made from Spalted Beech, the wood has been previously dried. With most spalted woods they tend to be a bit punky and soft in places. The wood way turned to a basic shape and then submerged into a heat curing resin, to get the resin right into the wood its placed into a vacuum until no more air bubbles can be seen, then its left over night to ensure its soaked in. After this the wood is then placed into an oven at 96 degrees Celsius for about 3 hours.

The wood is then turned and sanded to the final shape and then the hard wax oil coating is applied in several layers, allowing each layer to dry between coats, about 9 coats on this.

The handle is made from Ebony.

My Website - mjturning.com