Great work Mr. Cav. Really nice to see you doing the bowl thing. I like the designs of them all and especially the oil finish. I too am working on a Maple bowl right now. I have been applying Lindseed oil several times this month and letting the wood take up what it wants.
For you and anyone else that works with wax/oil finishes try this and see if you like the ease and cleanliness in applications. Take an old cotton sock put it inside it's mate (no holes.) Then pull both over a 3" PVC pipe and fill the inside sock with fine sawdust. Pack the sawdust as tight as possible and try to keep it packed as you remove the PVC. Then tie off the sock with nylon construction cord. The entire wad of sawdust is about as big as my fist when finished.
Then soak the 'assembly' in a generous amount of BLO, whatever, and use this as a blotter to apply the oil to the wood. No open cans to turn over, no brushes to clean, no dripping, no re-dipping, no muss, no fuss, nothing.
When the oil gets a bit used up I just pour some more into my METAL can and let the sock sit for a bit. NOTE I use a metal can as I don't want the oil laden sock to heat up over time when it's not being used and burn me out of house and home. No lid is involved either.
So far I have tried this with Tung Oil, BLO, several waxes and the mess associated from use of a brush is gone. BTW, I do not buff with the sock, just use it as a simple applicator device.
Do not leave this oil filled sock outside the metal holder sitting on top of anything ... you would be surprised as to how much oil can seep out overnight and get all over everything other than what you want it to get on! DAMHIKT!!!
Have fun ... :biggrin: