Workbench - Dog and Finish Decisions

glenn bradley

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Although I had put three dog holes in my vise faces, I had started with a single row side-to-side and front to back on the bench top. Well, of course I loved them immediately and couldn’t figure how I’d done without them. I dove right into a waiting project and never got back to drilling more holes.

The current project is in the proto-type stage and among other things I realized the need for more holes yet again. Stopped and drilled them. Then they needed BLO (my workbench finish) so I stripped the wax a bit in the area in question and went at it poking a BLO soaked rag through the holes and getting the insides well sopped.

The BLO revitalized the bench so well I went ahead and rubbed the rest of the top down with mineral spirits to strip the wax a bit and went to it. As in any BLO application I then rubbed as much excess off as would come off. The whole re-finishing took about 30 minutes. Once dry I will reapply the paste wax.

I toss all the rags and paper towels into a lidded metal bucket with a few inches of water in it that I have for working with these types of materials. This is certainly a simple, durable and very renewable finish for a bench. I hope this may help anyone thinking on how they will finish their workbench once they build it. Oh, and I hope it helps anyone wondering if they should add dog holes too.
 

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