And one more comment Blake. YES, there will be expansion/contraction movement. The issue that covering both sides of wood was supposed to prevent was those pieces doing a major cupping (or twisting) with the finished side getting less moisture and the unfinished receiving more moisture (because it does not have a finish on that side). This is the point that I was referring to above. Outside of maybe an epoxy finish can prevent moisture from affecting the expansion/contraction of wood.

Hi Blake. Welcome to bringing up a very controversial and “never answered to anyone’s complete satisfaction” question. However, at a seminar I attended many years ago with Bob Flexner speaking (a renown wood finishing expert with several books), he pointed out that if you look at tables, desks, cases and other items in museums with an inside and an outside or a top and a bottom, there is no clear obvious difference between the ones that had finish on both sides versus those that did not. The push to add finish on both sides started about in the 50s and 60s, but no clear cut reason why. For what it’s worth, I stopped doing both sides when he mentioned this and I’ve not noticed an issue. I will mention that I live in Southern California where as I write this, it’s 95% humidity outside. During the summer it can be <20% humidity at times, so we do have big ranges. But still, no issues with furniture finished on one side.

Hi R. Franklin. This may be a regional thing. I live in Southern California, and that is what we call it. Even contractors. You’ll also often find old folks like myself refer to refrigerators as ice boxes.

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