I just turned my first mortar and pestle (well really my first bowl of any kind) and I really love how it turned out. I was planning on giving it as a chistmas gift to my mother but before I’m done I need to figure out what kind of finish I need to put on it. She cooks a lot so she will actually be using the mortal and pestle a good bit I imagine, in fact she had told me she was really in need of one which was was I gave it a try when I was at the lathe. So since it will get a lot of use I need something that will be food safe that will stand up to a lot of use. The wood I used was from a river birch we cut and dried out at the beginning of the year. I was thinking shellac but before I did anything I wanted to come here first and get some ideas. Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

I’m looking for some advice on what to do to clamp down my work for things like sanding, hand planning and chisel work. Everywhere I look on advice on woodworking and the more I learn all I see is woodworkers with sweet custom workbenches with proper vices. Tasks like these are simple and most importantly safe for them because of these benches and vises but my problem is I simply don’t have the room in my very very small shop. I was wondering if there others out there in this same situation without the means to have these types of vices and what you do to properly clamp down your work pieces to work on the safely and easily in a severely limited space. Any advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!