How to finish wood scales?

R

Rus

Joined
Jun 22, 2010
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I am in the midst of my first attempt at making my own scales. What do I need to do to the wood once I have finished shaping them? Is there something that I need to use to seal it or coat it? I really don't have much of an idea. If it makes a difference, I am using bocote. Thanks for the help.
 
Rus said:
I am in the midst of my first attempt at making my own scales. What do I need to do to the wood once I have finished shaping them? Is there something that I need to use to seal it or coat it? I really don't have much of an idea. If it makes a difference, I am using bocote. Thanks for the help.
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This is only coming at you from a furniture makers perspective. You definitly need to seal it wood is terribly unpredictable so it should be seal asap not just to prevent stains but splits and cracks as well due to weather a moisture. You could use something like a linseed oil or just laquer. Don't know what knife makers nomally use.
 
I've used tung oil finish (not straight tung oil) for several projects, both knife handle and furniture or other woodworking projects and it works great. Tru-Oil is a linseed oil varnish that also works very well and is used on gunstocks often.

The reason why I (and others, I suspect) like oil finishes is that they don't leave the wood coated in a candy shell that can chip or flake off like lacquer can. They look better to me as well.

Understand that most oil finishes are oil/varnish blends that offer more protection than pure tung or linseed oil. Woodworking finishes are deceptive in their advertising so be aware. Tru-Oil, Formby's Tung oil finish (I think it's called) and Waterlox are all products that I've used and should be available in your neck of the woods if you poke around. Woodcraft carries some of them, but Tru-Oil can be found in lots of sporting goods stores in the firearms section.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the help to both of you. With the finishes PB Wilson was talking about, do you just follow the instructions on the container or are there some tricks that have worked better?
 
To get the best finish fine sand as much as you can, typically 600. I brush on alot of extra and let it set for at least and hour to soak in, wipe and let dry a short while, sand a bit with 600 reapply, and without sanding whip of excess buff and make one last application. let dry and buff, should look great. I like Teak oil the best but they are all good. I typically save my cutoffs to try different finishes (have cuttoff???)
 
I like to mix tung oil and boiled linseed oil. I put on 1 heavy coat and let it dry then sand it down lightly. Followed by another heavy coat and buff off with a rag after about an hour. Then I apply another moderate coat and let sit for a few hours and buff again with a rag. To finish i do a final coat and let it sit over night before buffing and polishing it.

MG
 
My last set was tung oil, followed by a mixture of tung oil and beeswax, then just straight beeswax.
I used a fair number of coat with the tung oil letting it soak in and wiping off the excess after an hour for each coat. I let it cure for about 2 weeks then made a paste about the consistency of shoe polish with with tung oil and beeswax, heated up the scales with a blow drier and applied 2 coats of that let is cure for a day buffed it by hand then melted a coat of plain beeswax into the scales and machine buffed them. What I came up with is a satin finish that is water resistant and non oily, yet offers good grip. How good this is I don't know, but I will find out. It looks good though
 
Well, I picked up some tung oil while I was at Lowe's tonight. We'll see how it works once I am finished shaping. Thanks again to everyone for the input.
 
Bocote is a tropical hard wood. Ask some people who have worked with it if it is oily enough that you don't have to mess around a lot of finish.
 
Bocote is pretty oily on it's own. It can also cause allergic reactions, so be careful. It will buff to a shine without any finish, but it has open grains like walnut that look much better filled.
 
I fill the grain in Bocote, buy using Tru Oil. Sand to what ever grit that you desire, usually 400-600, and then apply the oil and sand it till you have a slurry of oil and wood sanding dust, let dry and repeat a couple of times, or when grain is filled, and on the last coat wipe off excess with clean lint free cloth, and let dry and lightly buff, you can either hand buff or use a buffer.
Dale
 
Well thanks for the advice everybody. I am pretty happy with how far I got with the shaping yesterday. Hopefully, I will be able to finish them up soon. Thanks again everyone. Most forums I have seen don't really help you too much, but this place is different. Hope to be hangin' around here for a while.
 
Some of the oily hardwoods turn too dark when you use an oil finish. You might try the oil on a scrap piece first.
 
PB Wilson said:
I've used tung oil finish (not straight tung oil) for several projects, both knife handle and furniture or other woodworking projects and it works great. Tru-Oil is a linseed oil varnish that also works very well and is used on gunstocks often.

The reason why I (and others, I suspect) like oil finishes is that they don't leave the wood coated in a candy shell that can chip or flake off like lacquer can. They look better to me as well.
Click to expand...

Lacquer is pretty good on chip outs and stuff, it's softer than say a 2pac or something so it's more likely to just dent. 1pac is harder wearing but chips out easier and when it does scratch it goes white.
 
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