The older I get – perhaps a little wiser too, the more I like natural finishes on timber projects. As the body starts to protest a little more with advancing years, I have become much more aware of the potential impact of nasty chemicals. If you take a few moments to glance at a material safety data sheet of one or two of those tins sitting on your workshop shelf you will get what I mean. Workshops can be a dangerous place for the unwary. It’s one thing to suffer a cut or a banged finger, but the silent way some of these chemicals work slowly building up in your system, well, that is an entirely different thing.
As part of looking for safe alternatives, I recently found that soap has been used as a finish in Northern Europe for a long time. Your first reaction might be one of shock, but when you think about it, soap is probably no stranger than covering wood with bug excretion (shellac), tree sap (varnish), bee stuff (wax) or rendered flax seed (lacquer). In is elements, soap is a combination of natural oil with an alkali solution such as ash.
So how do you use soap as a finish? Well, it is pretty simple. Use natural soap flakes (those without additional perfumes, detergents and other chemicals) and mix them with hot water. Like most things made with your own hands, you can determine the thickness of the mix to form either a paste or a cream. It can be applied like other waxes and creams to form a protective barrier on the wood.
So, how does it wear? Well it certainly not has hard wearing as modern chemical finishes, but then it is not intended to. A few coats of the soap applied and polished when dried gives a lovely and quite unique finish to any timber. It is easy to freshen up as necessary after day-to-day wear too.
So if you are looking to try some simple natural alternatives to those lining the hardware store shelves, then this is certainly worth trying. Given the natural ingredients and non-toxicity, the little extra effort might be well and truly worth considering in your home and at the same time help preserve some of your wonderful treasures at the same time.
