Alright, so I wanted to share a bit about this little rabbit hole I went down recently. It all started when I was helping my neighbor clear out his late father’s old workshop. Tucked away in a corner was this small, beautifully made wooden box. The finish on it was something else, really smooth, deep glow. My neighbor mentioned his dad always called it the ‘McConkey finish’, named after some old timer named Vic McConkey who apparently showed him how decades ago.
That name, Vic McConkey, stuck in my head. I got curious. I like tinkering with wood myself, you know, just basic stuff in my garage. I thought, maybe I could figure out how he did that finish. So, the first thing I did was hit the internet. Typed in “Vic McConkey wood finish,” “Vic McConkey craftsman,” all sorts of combinations. And guess what? Almost nothing. Seriously, it was like the guy didn’t exist online. A few mentions here and there on some super old forum posts from like, the early 2000s, but mostly dead ends. No clear instructions, no photos, nothing solid.
Hitting the Books (and the Phone)
Okay, I thought, maybe this guy was pre-internet famous, purely local. I spent an afternoon at the local library, digging through old town records and newspapers. Found a couple of mentions of a ‘V. McConkey’ in relation to a woodworking guild back in the 50s or 60s, but nothing about his specific techniques. It felt like chasing a ghost.
I even tried calling a couple of older guys I know who’ve been into woodworking forever. Asked them if they’d ever heard of a Vic McConkey or his special finish. One guy kinda remembered the name, associated with intricate inlay work maybe, but definitely didn’t know any finishing secrets. Said something like, “Back then, lots of guys had their own little tricks they didn’t share much.” Great. Super helpful.
Trying Stuff Out in the Garage
So, with basically zero solid information, I decided to just… try stuff. I looked closely at that box again. It seemed like multiple thin layers, maybe some kind of oil and wax combo? Or shellac rubbed out in a specific way? Hard to tell.
Here’s what I ended up doing over a few weekends:
- Got some scrap maple and oak pieces. Sanded them down real smooth.
- Tried various concoctions based on vague hints from those old forum posts. Tung oil mixed with mineral spirits, let it soak, wiped it off.
- Experimented with shellac. Tried different ‘cuts’ (that’s just shellac flakes dissolved in alcohol), applying thin layers with a cloth, sanding lightly between coats. This seemed a bit closer.
- Messed around with paste waxes over the sealed wood. Buffed like crazy.
Honestly, most of my attempts looked… okay? But none of them had that specific deep, almost soft glow the box had. Lots of trial and error. Mostly error. I ended up with a bunch of wood scraps that looked kinda blotchy or just ordinarily shiny. It was pretty frustrating, spending hours sanding and finishing, just to wipe it off or sand it down again.
What I Reckon Now
After all that messing around, I never truly replicated that ‘McConkey finish’. Maybe it needed a specific type of wood I didn’t have, or some ingredient I couldn’t guess, or maybe just years of practice I obviously don’t have. It’s likely one of those things passed down directly, person to person, and maybe just faded away.
But you know, even though I didn’t find the ‘secret recipe’, the whole process was kinda interesting. It reminded me that not everything is documented online or easy to find. Some skills and knowledge are just tied to people and time. Spending those hours in the garage, trying things out, even if they didn’t work perfectly, was still pretty satisfying in its own way. Learned a bit more about working with different finishes, even if I didn’t master Vic McConkey’s ghost technique. So yeah, that was my little adventure trying to figure out that mystery finish.
