Oil/varnish finish dissolving resin?

M

milkbaby

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Aug 1, 2016
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Does anybody know if the solvents in common oil/varnish finishes, like the Watco Teak Oil I tried out yesterday, can dissolve cured resin from stabilized wood?

I used this teak oil on stabilized wood I got off ebay which I'm betting is cactus juice stabilized. I had sanded to 3000 grit and, wiped and blew off the sawdust but not with tack cloth or compressed air. After I flooded the handle with teak oil for 45 minutes, when I wiped it off, a bunch of small surface imperfections and voids appeared. It's stabilized burl so it actually looks really cool this way, but I'm wondering if these surface imperfections were there to begin with or the teak oil dissolves resin? I've used Watco Tung oil finish on stabilized burl wood before without this happening, although not from the same stabilized wood seller.

Also, I noticed that the oil/varnish after application then wiping tends to open up grain in bocote which is naturally oily. Am I just not cleaning up the surface enough after sanding or is something happening with the oil/varnish stripping oils or resin from wood?
 
Nothing in those oil finishes should do anything to the acrylic type resins used to stabilise wood. My experience has been that many woods, when stabilised, still have something of an open pore structure in them, they are not 100% resin filled (varies with supplier too), then when sanded, the pores fill with sanding dust, when wiped/flooded with oil this lifts the dust out and highlights those openings. If the oil cures it can fill those voids, at least in the wood I have worked. Sorry, can't see pictures on this computer, so don't know what your surface looks like.
 
C_Claycomb said:
Nothing in those oil finishes should do anything to the acrylic type resins used to stabilise wood. My experience has been that many woods, when stabilised, still have something of an open pore structure in them, they are not 100% resin filled (varies with supplier too), then when sanded, the pores fill with sanding dust, when wiped/flooded with oil this lifts the dust out and highlights those openings.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I was curious about this since I'd never used this teak oil before, and the other stabilized woods I'd used had been 100% solid all the way through. This one has voids like I'd expect in natural burl wood. Good to hear the facts from somebody with experience, thanks!
 
One of the things I have done with such wood is to sand fine-ish, maybe 400-600 grit, then wipe down with a solvent, acetone will work, although something like brake disk cleaner is probably better (less likely to react with epoxy), then use a cyanoacrylate (for example Zap-CA which penetrates cracks or Zap A Gap, which fills bigger gaps) to fill in little cracks or voids. Often I will fill till there is a lump proud of the surface, then use a needle file to take it back and then sand to blend with the handle, carry on sanding to polish, and only then apply any sort of oil. The cyanoacrylate has good compatibility with the methacrylates used to stabilise wood, but probably won't stick so well after you have oiled the surface.

Guess it depends how many voids we are talking about.
 
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