I had a cutting board made from some nice wood, but which was starting to lose its bright appearance.
A bit of research later, and I get some food-safe mineral oil and wax to restore the surface. Long story short, I was so impressed by how my cutting board came back to life, now I’m looking for any excuse to touch up all the wood in our house. I don’t even mind if I clean the cutting board and wash off some of the wax, because then I have an excuse to apply another layer. There’s something fun about buffing and polishing a surface.
I’m thinking of getting into woodworking just so I can do this more. I don’t even really want to make anything, just apply a bunch of tung oil to a random plank and then wax it to a shine.
See if there is a woodworker you can team up with. Sanding and finishing is loathed and dreaded by us, at least in my carpentry circle. We want the cutting and glueing and clamping jobs.
I don’t really mind sanding, I tend to put on some headphones and zone out. It can be a lot on big jobs. Planing and scraping can reduce the amount of sanding you need to do.
I often look forward to the process of at least starting the finish because I like watching the grain pop out.
But yes shortly after vacuuming sanding is probably the first major task I’d assign to an apprentice.