"Open with varnish" - is this the carpentry terminology. I'm trying to figure it out

For more than twenty years I have been working with wood and have never opened anything with varnish. I covered it with varnish - yes, but I never opened it.

I have repeatedly heard from friends who happened to make furniture, doors, stairs from wood, questions such as:

"And what varnish are you going to open?"

Or: "And with what varnish can this door be opened later - in five years?"

You think to yourself: "Doors are opened not with varnish, but with other tools .." But you politely tell your friends the name of the varnish and or with what varnish you can renew the coating.

And once again I heard this expression: to open it with varnish, and from a person who has nothing to do with woodworking, from the word at all, and wondered where this expression came from.

First I decided to look in the woodworking literature.

Looked in the books of 1901 edition of the carpentry work. Looked in the book "Carpenter Krasnodrevets" in 1947. Looked at a more modern source: "Illustrated manual for the production of joinery and furniture products" 1991 edition.

All of these books are about covering products with varnish, but not about opening.

That is, we can confidently say that officially there is no such term “varnish”.

Then I decided to check, and what is in Russian language means the word open up.

It turned out that you can open a parcel, a tin can, a safe, you can open flaws, the corpse is still being opened... playing cards are also revealed.

There is nothing even close to the tree.

There is a truth in the word "to reveal" a synonym - to reveal. And now it is already possible to reveal, to show the wood texture with varnish, but such an explanation will somehow be far-fetched.

I have an assumption that this expression "varnish" arose out of habit. Well, they opened the bottle, opened the canned food, and at the same time opened the texture of the wood with varnish. (joke)

Although while I was trying to figure out this expression, I came across a recording of a conversation at work:

- Listen, well, this is already a global problem.. .

- Yes, and put on it actually all-embracing!

So maybe this expression originated in production. Although during our work in the production of carpentry, we have always varnished products.

I also met an explanation that the expression “varnish” is characteristic of a certain territory, such as “lach” is said only by one half of Russia, and “varnish” is said by the other half of Russia. But on what territory “open with varnish” appeared, I never found out, and why this expression is widespread everywhere is also incomprehensible.

In general, I still do not understand where this expression came from and whether it has anything to do with woodworking.

What do you think? Write in the comments.

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Alexander.

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