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Best way to polish Ironwood?
- Thread starter shane
- Start date
Ironwood can be VERY pretty wood if you give it the time it deserves. the higher you hand sand ironwood, the more you'll get the chatoyance out of it.
What I'd suggest is hand sanding to 1000 grit and then lightly buffing with white compound on a clean (not used on metal) cotton buff.
-d
What I'd suggest is hand sanding to 1000 grit and then lightly buffing with white compound on a clean (not used on metal) cotton buff.
-d
Like you, I didn't know the best way to pull it off early on...you buff it too much and the orange peel effect is hideous. This is what works for me now. I polish my usual stuff after I take it down to 600 grit....but that is not fine enough for ironwood. For ironwood I head over to the local NAPA auto parts store and get some 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper that they use in the bodyshop trade. I take it on down to the 2000 grit and then lightly polish with a clean buffer with white rouge on the wheel...if I want anymore polish than the 2000 grit provides. Many times the 2000 grit is perfect...a sort of soft, not glaring, eggshell lustre.
Best of luck!
Hank
Best of luck!
Hank
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2004
- Messages
- 3,041
Mmmmm....ironwood. TLC is what it takes....go slow...get every scratch out. Sand more, buff less for sure. Here are some examples I did that I thought came out nice:
Eggshell satin is my favorite...about 1200 grit...no buff.
This is another nice piece I did, a little shinier:
And one I did way back:
Eggshell satin is my favorite...about 1200 grit...no buff.
This is another nice piece I did, a little shinier:
And one I did way back:
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 3,816
Take it to 1000+ then use minwax on a clean cotton cloth and shoe shine it. This will stop the orange peel of the buffer. Do not use the buffer. if you must then use a slow one. I have a 3ph buffer plugged into my vfd so I can run it really slow with a very loose wheel buff.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2001
- Messages
- 20,978
I sand to 800 and then buff with wax (no polishing compounds to dirty up the wood).
Personally, I use Briwax...which does add a slight glow to anything amber colored (such as the light coloring in ironwood). I can watch it "pop" as I buff it.
I reeeeeaaaaally don't like using compounds on any wood....stabilized or not. Wax is an easily restored finish, can be grippy, protects the wood, is a more "natural" finish, and so on.
The compound (even white and pink compounds - I've used both) can load up the grain with small bits of yuck that is hard to get out...even worse with burls (w/ voids).
Best of luck!
:thumbup:
Dan
p.s. I will freely admit I never like seeing wood "under glass"...some use a superglue finish (takes care of the voids problem)...but to me, it bumps the knife out of the user category...and yes, I like to put ironwood on users! :thumbup:
Personally, I use Briwax...which does add a slight glow to anything amber colored (such as the light coloring in ironwood). I can watch it "pop" as I buff it.
I reeeeeaaaaally don't like using compounds on any wood....stabilized or not. Wax is an easily restored finish, can be grippy, protects the wood, is a more "natural" finish, and so on.
The compound (even white and pink compounds - I've used both) can load up the grain with small bits of yuck that is hard to get out...even worse with burls (w/ voids).
Best of luck!
:thumbup:
Dan
p.s. I will freely admit I never like seeing wood "under glass"...some use a superglue finish (takes care of the voids problem)...but to me, it bumps the knife out of the user category...and yes, I like to put ironwood on users! :thumbup:
