cocobolo wood

J

Jeff Faria

Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Messages
22
i just bought a piece of cocobolo wood and i am not sure how to or what type of oil would be best to use on it to bring out its natural beauty
 
Before you use it, be sure it has been adequately dried or it will shrink after you use it. Lots of exotic woods come in wet, and need to be air dried before they can be used.
The general rule is 1 year per inch of stock, but you can get away with much less if it is in thinner pieces. If already dry, you can use Watco natural, or a boiled linseed oil thinned with mineral spirits. An option is something like Formby Tung oil finish, but this will leave a surface film if you use many coats - it is a wiping varnish.
 
+1 on thinned out and boiled linseed.

And yes, make sure its dry. Even a small amount of shrinkage will ruin the whole deal.
 
freebe said:
i just bought a piece of cocobolo wood and i am not sure how to or what type of oil would be best to use on it to bring out its natural beauty
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Just an FYI, this is not the correct section to be asking about wood. General knife discussion is for knives.
 
You really don't need to add anything to Cocobolo to obtain a fine finish. There is enough natural oil in this wood already. Sand to 800-1000 grit by hand then buff with a clean wheel. It'll shine up quite nicely.

One of mine in cocobolo done as mentioned above:
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Thanks for the replies the wood has been dried. I think i will go with bigblue17 suggestion it is a very oily wood. love the way you made your sheath very nice.
 
Be sure to protect yourself from the dust. Many people have or develop a serious allergic reaction to it. Kind of like poison ivy.
 
Yup, cocobolo is one of the worst for developing sensitivities. That's actually a good way to acquire some nice aged stock is wait for someone who uses it to get sick from it and sell it in lot.

It can be buffed to a durable near mirror finish without any finishing on it at all. Beware that some hardening oil finishes don't react well to the natural oils in the wood and never properly harden.
 
Yup, dust mask, long sleeved shirt at minimum. A little wax is all you need, probably not even that.
BigBlue, did you do any grain filling, or did it come up fine without? That's awfully smooth, my cocobolo handles (haven't used it in a while) tend to have a bit of pore showing, will that all sand out?
 
handsand to 2500 and watch it get pretty and shiny while you work it.
An amazing experience
 
If it were me, I'd age it a year after I got it to be sure.
 
elementfe said:
BigBlue, did you do any grain filling, or did it come up fine without?
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No. That's just straight hand sanding to 1000 then buffed hard on a clean, loose wheel till it shined up. I have occasionally used a hard paste wax finish on cocobolo, but not with this particular handle/sheath inlay.

-Peter
 
FYI, coco bolo was elevated to appendix II on CITES list June 12. International shipment of RAW lumber, logs, etc is greatly restricted and only with proper permitting. Prices have allready jumped as much as $20 bf. No restrictions on finished goods like knife and tool handles or guitars,etc.
 
Well i just did a half hearted attempt sanded my cocobolo to 1000 grit and buffed it on a clean wheel and it came out beautiful thanks guys really like this wood
 
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