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I have been wondering about making my own wooden mug for shaving.. I have obtained a decent sized piece of mesquite wood with which to make the mug. I was wondering if the wood would crack, or in any way get damaged by the water, and soap. Or what I could use to keep the wood from doing so.
I would stick with a very hard dense wood. Mahogany, types of cypress and of course teak is probably the best. Either way wood is high maint if it comes into contact with water on a regular basis.
If you seal it with a few coats of varnish it will be fine.
Warning: Keeping bowls from cracking/splitting is a major pain in the butt. I've not tried it yet, but I just bought a small lathe and have unintentionally ran across page after page after page after page of how to keep wood bowls from splitting. Granted they deal with exotics that have crazy grains.
To waterproof stuff I like wipe-on Poly (polyurethane) finishes. Put about 5 thin coats on...sand it down, and then 2 or 3 more. I tend to be able to get 2 or 3 coats on a day.
The other very good, option is Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil. You can get it in little bottles in gun stores. The stuff is thick, and I've messed up more than one project by not waiting until it is completely dry before putting on another coat.
The big box stores will have the wipe-on poly. Any gun enthusiast store will likely have the Tru-Oil.
Wow, My head is spinning. I have turned all of my own lather bowls as well as hundreds of other items used for liquids. I have also carved my fair share of wood bowls used for water.
First: is the wood fully dried? How long has it been cut? how big is it? are there any cracks in it? could you post pictures? Is it rough or sawn? Is the pith in the piece still or has it been removed?
Second: There are many finishes that you can use to make wood water resistant. These are nearly limitless, but each has its own properties and difficulties.
Third: Do not fear the wood. If people kept wood away from water we wouldn't have invented boats/ships for some time and many believe that wood is still one of the best materials for this purpose.
Fourth: what tooling do you have available? working particular shapes can get difficult with out proper tools; it can be done, but many give up in the process because of the effort it takes.
Yea sailing ships were made of wood and you know how most of the crew spent their days aboard ships? Scrubbing decks and doing constant maint.
I can go back a few years when I dabbled in model boat building and yea in those days we used sanding sealer and used many many coats and after the paint used clear coat and I know they have better products now but in the end if it's wood and it's in regular contact with water and you want it to look as good as new you have to plan on maint.
The wood has been dried for 4 years. It is about 10 inches long, 3&3/4 inces wide, It has no chips or cracks, but there are one or two worm holes in it. No big problem though. I have basically removed all of the soft wood that was around the heart. I have availiable several things in my schools woodshop class. Table saw, band saw, several drills, a wide variety of bits. I also have access to a lathe.