finishing toy bricks in oak

[alexalexander]

I've made some child's building blocks from european oak and was planning
on finishing them with a carnauba wax polish. Practical and safe.
However, I dropped one and realised that the wood is more brittle than I
expected as a couple of corners chipped off.
I'm now wondering if I should finish them with something that penetrates
the wood a bit and sets hard to make them more robust.
Does anyone have any suggestions ?

 

[ColeyS1]

Perhaps put a small radius/round on the bricks ? This may help them from getting damaged so easily.
Welcome to the forum btw!

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[MikeG.]

If you're trying to toughen oak up then an orthodox finish is out. I reckon you'd need to look at a 2 pack product such as Rustins Plastic Coat or West Systems Epoxy, but that could be a serious fiddle for small pieces.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you were to go to the trouble of using a 2 part finish, for it to work well you'd need to take off the arrises - and if you've gone to the trouble of taking the arrises off you could probably get away with a finish like Danish or a hardwax oil. Quicker and easier.

 

[alexalexander]

thanks for the replies. It was one of the triangular pieces where the corners broke off and from the comments I guess I didn't round the edges well enough. I've now made sure that the edges are well rounded on all the pieces. I'll try dropping one of those and see if the problem still happens! If not then I'll finish up with the hard wax. If it does I'll try rounding over some more. The 2 part finish sounds a bit fiddly for all these small pieces.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

By the nature of a triangle you'll have very short grained bits on at least one corner - you'll need to round them if they're not to be knocked off.

 

[AndyT]

I can sympathise if you were using up offcuts of oak, but I think you have found out why good quality children's blocks are generally made of beech.

 

[Topjoiner]

As much as I love oak I don't think I would have chosen it for building blocks as it can be brittle especially in knotted areas and it always wants to move/twist/split, if possible maybe try to bevel the edges and corners
And I would give it a good soak in some pre laquer sealant