hi, I'm hoping you can help, I have a loom, that's been stored in a slightly damp shed. It gets quite a bit of use, but is now starting to look as if it's rain speckled. When being delivered, it did get a little damp. I don't know what the finish on it is, some of the wood is completely unfinished, other bits may have been oiled. What can I do to protect the wood? Should I oil it will danish oil and finish with wax or does it need more dramatic treatment? Here's hoping you can help. I hope to post on my wood turnings in future, but I just recently got started. yours, Ruby
I should preface my answer with the following: It's been many years since the loom was sold, we lived in a much dryer climate than we do today, and my memory isn't what is used to be... Therefore, you may take this as a grain of salt if you prefer...
However, If I remember correctly, some parts of the loom we had were finished with either lacquer or shellac, where there was any finish at all. Much of it did not have any real finish, though a few places were waxed for one reason or another. I'd go easy with any finish, and stay away from oils, as they might transfer to the article you're making... Never mind how I found this out, but I did get really good at making exact and functional replicas of various parts of that loom.... Safest in my mind would be shellac, because it protects reasonably, doesn't transfer like oils might (even a hardenend oil will transfer something from time to time, particularly to an item like thread on the typical loom... Shellac is easy to deal with, leaves a reasonably hard finish, and is food safe (though it really shouldn't matter with a loom anyway). Next on my list is laquer (intended as a wood finish) which makes an even harder finish once it has outgassed all of the volatiles from the thinner, and if you can get it where you live, automotive lacquers are even harder and more moisture resistant.
Of course, the air quality gestapos have pretty much killed the availability of automotive lacquers, even if they didn't really put that much into the atmosphere. Funny that you can still buy lacquer thinner at the hardware store in gallons, along with a bunch of other volatile spirits, but noooo, you can't get a nice useful and damn near impervious acrylic lacquer any more... Sorry, didn't mean to get on the soap box, but I really miss being able to get acrylic lacquers for a number of projects I'm working on. The "replacements" water based enamels and such really suck, particularly in their open time (the time until they are tack free) and they just don't have the utility that a decent lacquer does. [stepping back off the soap box...]
Anyway, I'd probably just use a decent shellac. It's easy to get, easy to apply (you can either brush or spray it), protects decently, and won't contaminate the item your're making with the loom....
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