Reply by Brit

Nice job on the saw Don, looks great.

Bertha – No, I didn’t make the handles themselves. When I bought them, the lacquer on both handles was badly cracked and flaking off. I scraped and sanded it back to the wood and refined the shape slightly to make them more comfortable to hold and to remove chips and scratches.

1. Sanded carefully and thoroughly up to P600 grit.
2. Liberally applied a coat of BLO with a paper towel. Added more to areas that kept soaking it up. After about 30 minutes, I wiped off any excess and left it for 48 hours to dry.
3. I mixed up a finish that was about 1/2 BLO, 1/4 Pure Turps and 1/4 Oil-based polyurethane. I wiped on 3 or 4 coats of this finish over the course of a couple of weeks, letting it dry thoroughly each time.
4. After the last coat, I left the handles for two weeks and then rubbed them out with Liberon clear paste wax applied with Liberon 0000 steel wool. I let the paste wax dry overnight and buffed it up the next day with clean soft cloth.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.