Need help finishing natural wood handle

[milkbaby]

Wanting some advice for finishing a natural non-stabilized wood handle... It's walnut and black palm on a kitchen knife for myself. It's sanded up to 220 grit and then I flooded it with Watco tung oil finish (NOT 100% natural tung oil), keeping it wet for 20 minutes by adding more if spots seemed to be drying/soaked in, then gently wiped off with a towel. Below is what it looks like now, with grain pores open won't it collect dust and grit? On the other hand, I like the look and feel.

The plan is to let dry 24 hours then flood with tung oil finish, wait 5 to 10 minutes, wipe down and dry another 24 hours, rinse and repeat a week. Then final would be paste wax buffed by hand.

I know the wood swelled up when I was wet sanding the handle. Because I pulled the pins out and reinstalled while wet, the holes enlarged, that's why there's epoxy ring around the pins. So I know soaking the handle will move the wood, but since the knife is 1084, I don't plan to leave it wet any time in the future.

Is my plan a good one? Or should I wet sand with tung oil finish and leave as is to dry 24 hours, then sand down, clean, and repeat tung oil finish with wet sanding? Will this help minimize movement from moisture absorption?

 

[velferd]

More or less sounds good. I might let the finish cure (usually about 72 hrs) before the next coat, but dry should be OK.
MY process for guns and knives is basically the same, except that I use pure tung oil (I have it on hand, will try polymerized when I run out) and I wet sand between each coat of tung oil. I usually do about 6 coats if tung oil, over about a week period. I then do a few coats od danish oil to give it a bit of a sheen, again I wet sand it between coats. I should clarify, by wet sand between coats I mean I sand the piece wet with oil before doing a final wipe and application of the next coat.

 

[milkbaby]

Thanks velferd! To clarify, you'd sand while wet with oil, then leave the slurry on it until the next day then wipe and repeat? Or another way?

 

[noseoil]

With an oil finish, the first sanding with oil is done to work up a mud or slurry & plug up the pores with the paste as it's worked into the surface. This can take a while to dry completely (a warm room is good here or water heater closet), a few days or even more since there's a good layer on the wood which is thicker than just the oil by itself.

The next wet sanding is done to cut the surface back to smooth & get rid of any surface mud which is laying on top of the wood. You will see any "flat" spots from the left-over mud, if you hold it up to the light & look across the wood. Once the mud is completely removed, work up through the grits to wherever you will stop (600-800), wiping each grit before leaving it to dry. Make sure it is completely dry before starting the next coat of oil & sanding with a finer grit. When it is done, use a small amount of oil on your hand to wipe it down, not a runny wet mess, just enough to wet out the surface & fill the small scratches, which are too small to see with the naked eye.