Messing With New Finishes

I decided to try out some new finishes. CA and tung oil. Not pure tung oil, but minwax tung oil finish. I went with yellowheart for the CA. The CA was starting to make me really mad since I kept flipping the scales over and getting dirt and dust in the glue till I adjusted my little holders and I won't have fingerprints on the tips of my fingers for awhile after picking them up. The CA really showed just how the grain in this wood shimmers in the light though so was worth it. The left scale is just started sanding with 400 grit and the right is finished. After I got to 600 grit I knew it was going to shine cause it was already shimmering. After 1000 grit I "cut" the finish and it still looked somewhat dull from what I was expecting, but then I remembered reading in GSSIXGUN's http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ints-tips.html (great thread by the way) to use wax afterwards. All I had was some lemon oil & beeswax, but it really made it shine. Hard to capture just what the grain looks like in this wood with a camera, but I really like it. I like the CA on the yellowheart, but I think I would go with something else with alot of other woods. I guess high gloss just isn't my thing for most stuff. The ebony I decided to try tung oil, which I think was the wrong wood since it was so dark and tightly grained it didn't really bring the grain out. I had to keep buffing it with the grain instead of across it so it would pull some of the oil from the pores otherwise it was starting to look like plastic and that isn't what I wanted. I didn't want to bring it to a high gloss cause I liked it with a dull finish. Great learning experience for what certain finishes can do to different woods. Still got some more experimenting with different woods to really get an idea though.

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Nice job. Ebony is an oily wood, so next time use a sanding sealer or thin out some shellac w/ denatured alcohol first, then use a satin or semi gloss finish over that once you sand it flat. If you like the bare wood look, marine tung oil that's polymerized or just a 3lbs cut of clear/natural shellac would do the trick as well. The CA goes quicker if you get the accelerator, and helps keep some of the dust from getting into it down; plus you can work about 3x's faster as well.

You don't really need a finish on ebony. After sanding through to high grits and buffing with tripoli it is fine as it is. It certainly won't take in an oily finish like tung oil - it just sits on the surface and in the pores and will rub right off if you buff it enough. A little renaissance wax, maybe, is all you need.

Regards,
Neil

Oily woods can be wiped with acetone before finishing. That helps a lot.

I know ebony doesn't need a finish, but the scales were already made and sitting there when I got the tung oil so figured why not. I gave them a healthy wipe down with acetone and applied the tung oil. The first two coats soaked in quite abit and after that I applied a third and that is what you see. I just wanted to use it on something and I was impatient on waiting to make a new set of scales. I like the silky smooth soft finish it left though. I should have made a set of scale from something that had a more noticeable grain pattern cause it seemed to really bring out the grain on some scrap pieces I had. Ebony is just to tight grained and dark to really notice it.

Maple, paduak, burls, oaks, and even coccobolo that's a bit lighter in color, really pop with tung or danish oil.

I think people go overboard with finishes.Most exotic hardwoods with oil content do well with just finishing to 600 grit.
Than burnishing with Rottenstone and oil, than ren-wax, brings out the true beauty in the wood.A total natural finish.
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