A Hint For Oil Finishing

This works great on the Tru-Oil, and should work with most any of them. Put a fairly heavy coat on the sanded wood and let it dry. After it's dry, come back with sandpaper and oil. Wet the wood and the paper with oil, and sand in the direction of the grain. It creates a slurry of wood and oil that fills the pores of the wood. The oil will dry as you sand, but keep it wet and slick with oil. You can tell with strong light when the grain is filled. Wipe down with a tack cloth (or other non-linting cloth) and let dry. Then add layers of oil as you wish. You'll get a faster, brighter, slicker, more even finish. Hope this'll help someone. :D

Joe

Thanks joe. Will this also be effective with padauk with its hollow spots in the grain or will i still need to use the brass+CA solution?

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Thanks joe. Will this also be effective with padauk with its hollow spots in the grain or will i still need to use the brass+CA solution?

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To be honest, Ilija, I don't know, as padauk has a very open grain, unlike most hardwoods. I'm sure you could fill the grain this way, but it might take you a quart of oil and 16 pounds of sandpaper. :D CA might be a better way to go with padauk. The wet sanding works amazingly well on woods like maple and laburnum, though, that have relatively fine pores. You can fill them without completely killing the grain and pattern that makes the wood desirable. I've only recently started using this method, so the number of woods I've tried it on is somewhat limited. I must thank 520dvx, though, for the idea, as he was the first guy I talked to who does it (and he makes nice scales, as well).

I think I'll stick with CA and brass dust :D Thanks again Joe

Some great advice joe, I think I'll have to try it.

You mentioned that the oil will dry as you sand, however, I'd be using tung oil and it takes quite some time to dry. So I'm thinking that when I go to wipe off the except with cloth or a tack rag, it's just going to pull all the filler out of the grain. Am I correct in assuming this will be a problem with oils that have a long dry time?

I don't think so. Even tung, which takes a long time to dry, gets tacky pretty quick in thin layers. As it fills the pores, it kinda sticks. It might be a problem if you use an aggressive cloth or rub too hard. You're just trying to take off the surface excess, not scrub the wood out. With the tung, this is just supposition, rather than known fact, but give it a try and let us know how it works out. I really think it'll be fine. Remember, when I'm using the Tru-Oil it's still wet, and I add more so it stays that way while I'm sanding, so it should be about the same as the tung; you just might not have to add as much oil while you're sanding. Just my $.02

Joe

Alright, I'm going to try it on my next set of brazilian rosewood scales. The rosewood has some small pores, not to big and not so small that the filler wouldn't be able to get in there. Hopefully it turns out well :)

What type of oil are you using when you sand down (after treating with tru-oil), and what grit sand paper? Do you follow the whole treatment up with a final coat of Tru-oil to seal it all in?

I'm a bit confused.... :thinking:

C utz

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Originally Posted by C utz

What type of oil are you using when you sand down (after treating with tru-oil), and what grit sand paper? Do you follow the whole treatment up with a final coat of Tru-oil to seal it all in?

I'm a bit confused.... :thinking:

C utz

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I'm using tru-oil the whole time. Put a coat on, let it dry. Re-wet with the oil, on the wood and sandpaper. I usually use 600 grit. This is almost a preliminary step, to get the best finish. After you've wiped off the excess oil, let it dry. Then, add coats of whatever oil you're using until you get the finish you want. I never have less than 8 coats after wet sanding, inside and outside the scales.

This does work with tung oil. You don't want to flood the piece with oil, or you can wash out your filling.

I have even done this on a large grained oak, and it does work...it just takes well over a dozen coats to fill the grain. If you are using tung oil you can speed the pore filling as well as the drying time by adding some oil based varnish to the mix (when doing this I also add a touch of mineral spirits or turpentine to thin the mix back to the approximate thickness of the tung oil) - although I think that pure tung or linseed oil gives a better look.

Spraiski