Finishing Wenge

I

Icarryknives

Joined
Jan 3, 2012
Messages
15
Hey Guys

I'm making some knives using wenge and I need some advice on how to finish the wood. The wood needs to be able to resist absorbing water, blood and other things so I also need advice on sealing the wood.

Any information would useful thanks.

OMT
 
I've only worked with wenge once, so others may have better info for you. It reminds me a lot of rosewood, open-pored and oily, so I don't know how well it will take any kind of "hard" finish like poly. The pieces I worked with did respond well to several coats of Danish oil, burnished in with 0000 steel wool. In my experience, Danish oil and similar finishes actually hold up fairly well to moisture and stuff. The trick is to keep applying it until the wood flat-out refuses to absorb anymore, and let it dry thoroughly between coats.

When it comes to natural, oiled woods (and uncoated carbon steel as well), I simply tell people: treat it like your Grampa's deer rifle... clean it gently and often, and it will last for generations.
 
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Thanks mate for the info. Can boilled linseed oil, or any other cheaper alternatives, be used instead of dainish oil?
 
The wenge that I've used was far from oily like cocobolo and other such woods. I'm either forgetting what wenge is, or my wenge was completely different than what James used. It has been a few years since I used it though as it's not my favorite particularly.

However, it is very open pored and splintery. I used several coats of oil (like tung oil or Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil) and it finished nicely. Sand it to a high grit...say 1,200 or 2,000....and apply several coats of oil, let them dry thoroughly, and keep applying until the surface is smooth. Those type oils will harden and when applied in enough coats to fill all the pores and provide a thin layer on top of that will be fairly waterproof. Just my $0.02.
 
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I use polyurethane on it. Thin it, dip it, then wipe it totaly dry. I do this a few times. Seals it up OK. A real woodworker would shellac it to seal it. Then polyurethane. But I'm partial to poly.

Sand blast it for fun. Really a neato effect. Then just wax.
 
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