Finishing stabilized wood

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Randydb

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Sep 27, 2014
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Hi,
I see that people basically sand to 800-1200 grit and lot of them use different versions of some type of oil like Danish or Tung oil and then wax.

Is it a viable option to use polyurethane?

Thanks
Randy
 
You can use poly but it won't look as good or hold up as well.
Danish Oil blend is cheap and available at most hardware stores.
I like Watco Brand Danish Oil best.
 
I do a fair bit of woodwork and have made tables, drums, flutes and a variety of other things. Poly tends to hold up pretty nicely and make the grain pop with the maple and walnut I use.
What is it about treated wood that makes poly not such a good option? I have danish oil and tung oil at home too. It's not a price issue. I suppose I just dislike having to touch up oil finishes after a few years when it is an item that gets a lot of use.. Maybe I don't have to if it is stabilized wood?
 
Randydb said:
I do a fair bit of woodwork and have made tables, drums, flutes and a variety of other things. Poly tends to hold up pretty nicely and make the grain pop with the maple and walnut I use.
What is it about treated wood that makes poly not such a good option? I have danish oil and tung oil at home too. It's not a price issue. I suppose I just dislike having to touch up oil finishes after a few years when it is an item that gets a lot of use.. Maybe I don't have to if it is stabilized wood?
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With stabilized woods I go up to 400 grit on my grinder (or hand sand if needed), then to my buffer. (700 grit) green compound, then (1000 grit) white compound.
 
A knife handle is the "high traffic" area if you will. Poly is a top coat and Danish, tung, tru-oil are penetrating finished. This keeps the finish from rubbing off. You want a finish that is in the wood and not on the wood. With that said, if it's stabilized correctly you don't need anything. Sand it high and buff. If you want it a satin finish stop around 800. If you want that glassy look then water sand to 2000-2500 and buff with pink scratchless compound.
 
Randydb said:
I suppose I just dislike having to touch up oil finishes after a few years when it is an item that gets a lot of use..
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Compared to poly an oil finish will be much easier to touch up if the knife gets a lot of use, wouldn't it ??? Personally I would never use poly on a knife handle
 
I use tru oil Randy. Here's a tutorial that I have followed with good success. You need about 3 coats on a stabilized wood handle.
[video=youtube_share;uQgikXUhVfQ]http://youtu.be/uQgikXUhVfQ[/video]


How is the kids' project going?
 
Thank you guys. Yes Angus7us I did see that thread already. Obviously a bunch of knife makers who know a ton more than me are using oils and staying away from poly so I will too. I will watch that tutorial Shane. It will get me going.

I see that Burlsource thread also mentions using CA as a method. I think I was sort of piggy backing poly onto that.

I have all the stabilized wood for my students now and we will be drilling holes and putting their handles on their knives this week. I will drop you an email this week Shane and talk to you about firming up a day for sheath making.
Thanks everyone here. I am amazed at the help and information.
Randy
 
The CA finish is still in the wood. When I use it, I haven't done it on stabilized wood, I end up buffing all of it off the surface leaving it in and not on the wood. Good luck and keep us updated!
 
S.Alexander said:
I use tru oil Randy. Here's a tutorial that I have followed with good success. You need about 3 coats on a stabilized wood handle.
[video=youtube_share;uQgikXUhVfQ]http://youtu.be/uQgikXUhVfQ[/video]


How is the kids' project going?
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I have to preface this by saying I don't know really anything about this stuff. And thank you for the tip about the vasoline on the blades. I just dealt with that and spent more actual time sanding the Tru oil off the blades than applying it to the handles.

As far as getting a goopy mess if applied thickly I didn't get that. I sanded one stabilized piece and one unstabilized piece up to about 2000 grit. I used maybe three or four thin coats on each letting each coat dry about 2 hours. I then applied a thick coat to each, enough to have stuff dripping down the blade after I applied it. I let it sit for about 8 hours. I then checked to see if it was still tacky and it wasn't. I then used a 2500 grit piece of paper and lightly sanded each down, just enough to even the surfaces. I then applied another pretty heavy coat and let that sit for about 8 hours (Overnight). The first thing the next morning I used a piece of scotchbrite and lightly rubbed it over the surface. I then got an old clean t-shirt and applied one last light layer. The results are pretty freaking outstanding. The Tru oil brought out some really serious detail in the stabilized wood that hasn't been there since I bought the knife and it stepped up the chatoyance several notches of some cheap bloodwood scales I put on another knife. In both cases the Tru oil helped and is pretty hard at this point. Glassy, almost lacquered finishes without being overly slick and it brought out some deep prettiness of the woods I put it on, more than hand sanding and buffing did, anyway. I'll post some pics in a sec.

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Why do you need to apply an oil finish to plastic? What does it do for you? Just curious. Fine sanding and a good buff do the trick for me with stabilized wood.
 
jdm61 said:
Why do you need to apply an oil finish to plastic? What does it do for you? Just curious. Fine sanding and a good buff do the trick for me with stabilized wood.
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The knife I just posted pictures of with the dyed and stabilized handles had been hand sanded from about 220 grit up to 2500 grit and hand buffed with 8,000 grit compound. It never showed the amount of figuring until I used tru oil on it. Its vibrancy, color, and depth are much more apparent in real life than I can capture with my crappy cell phone camera. I showed it to a coworker today and his initial response was 1) where'd you get granite that looked like that and 2) how the hell did someone make a knife handle out of it. Needless to say I'm now "under contract" to buy a knife and rehandle it for him. Not a bad way to make some money doing something I enjoy. I'm only charging him 15 bucks plus materials because I'm still rough with what I'm doing and it doesn't meet my own standards yet. I've finished 2 knife handles and refinished 2. That's pretty much zero experience, but I'm liking the results so far.
 
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Be careful because When tru oil is applied too thick it will not cure all the way. Then on warm humid days it will feel kinda sticky.
 
That looks great. It was funny today when I showed the students their stabilized wood for their handles. They were pretty disappointed and thought their wood was going to look pretty ugly. I told them it was going to be fine and when they sanded it up nice it was going to be beautiful. I will have to show them some pictures of before and after stabilized wood.

What are the pins in the burl handle made of? Carbon fiber? Wood dowel? They look good. My students made dowel from different species of wood to use for pins and I will show them some pictures of contrasting color pins like yours Bodog.
 
Has anyone tried a "slip coat" of clear epoxy or super glue?
 
jdm61 said:
Why do you need to apply an oil finish to plastic? What does it do for you? Just curious. Fine sanding and a good buff do the trick for me with stabilized wood.
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This is just my opinion and goes contrary to how a lot of knife makers finish their handles.
With some stabilized wood you can just sand and buff and the handle will look good.
But......you can make it look even better. Especially with medium and coarse grained woods.
The most common mistake I see is buffed handles with compound in the pores.

If you finish the wood in a manner that fills the pores before buffing or polishing the colors will appear more vivid and the figure will have more depth.
I am not saying that you have to build up the surface, just fill the pores.
Danish oil is easy to use and can fill the pores nicely after 3 or 4 coats. Wet sanding between coats helps to build up a slurry that can fill the pores more quickly.
Thin CA glue works well if you sand down to just bare wood between coats.
The goal is to fill the pores.
Then when the light reflects off the surface it is a smooth/even surface.
If the handle ends up too shiny, just rub it down with extra fine steel wool for a satin finish.
Or you can use one of the fine pads being used instead of steel wool.
 
Just to use as an example, this is a knife Erin Burke made using stabilized walnut followed by a tru-oil finish.
He did a bit of extra work, but I think you will agree that his results are better than what is usually considered "good enough".
18978577055_5696325536_b.jpg
 
Randydb said:
That looks great. It was funny today when I showed the students their stabilized wood for their handles. They were pretty disappointed and thought their wood was going to look pretty ugly. I told them it was going to be fine and when they sanded it up nice it was going to be beautiful. I will have to show them some pictures of before and after stabilized wood.

What are the pins in the burl handle made of? Carbon fiber? Wood dowel? They look good. My students made dowel from different species of wood to use for pins and I will show them some pictures of contrasting color pins like yours Bodog.
Click to expand...

Didn't make that one, I just sanded some of the contours and played a little bit with the Tru oil. I wasn't sure how it'd react. Bill Akers made that one. There's not much that can be improved with that handle. I really just wanted to make it pop.

They're carbon fiber pins and I believe bad dogs burl source has some scales pretty similar to these. I'd post a link but I don't know if he's a supplier here.
 
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