Step by Step Guide to finishing Burl & Figured Wood Handles

Dennis Paish said:
Question: Describe hand buff with t-shirt. How long, in one direction, etc? I thought machine buffing was the preferred method... Thanks for the info.

Dennis
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Hi Dennis,
Just think of it like polishing a pair of shoes. You could either wax lightly and wipe to look ok or like military style boot polishing you can go all out holding the knife in a vise and polish like you would with a shoe shine rag.

I am sure there will be plenty who disagree about the machine buffing. That's ok. Do things how you like it best. Machine buffing done lightly will define and sharpen the grain a bit but tends to lessen the reflectivity of the figure. Some woods it will give the appearance of smearing the grain. Especially when overbuffing.
 
cdent said:
Any ballpark idea of how this finish holds up with regular use. Would you repair the finish with the spray laquer or a bit of the oil mix.

Thanks much for any comments, Craig
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An oil finish is one of the easiest to repair. I would rub down the knife handle with steel wool then wipe on oil in the scuffed area. Then spray a few light coats of lacquer to blend everything together again. It's easier than I make it sound.
 
Mark,

Thanks for the tutorial it's great information one question if you wanted to add a stain would you do it first before oiling?

Tim
 
fishface5 said:
hey, super info! One question - I have a can a spray Varathane, is that similar to the lacquer? I'm having problems with it remaining tacky on the handles. Thanks!!
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If the varathane remains tacky it can be because of moisture in the air or maybe just a bad batch. I like the spray lacquer better.
 
frogfish said:
Mark,

Thanks for the tutorial it's great information one question if you wanted to add a stain would you do it first before oiling?

Tim
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Hey Tim,
If you are going to dye or stain the wood I would do it right after sanding and before oiling. Bear in mind that the oil will make the stain look darker. Some stains will raise the grain a bit so I would stain the wood and let it dry. Then see if the wood still feels smooth. If not I would rub it lightly with the steel wool to get it smooth again. If you sand after staining you run the risk of sanding through the stain back to natural color again.
 
I wanted to make a clarification on my comment about machine buffing handles.

When a lot of burl or figured wood handles are machine buffed it will darken portions of the figure giving a contrast between the regular and figured portions of the wood. Example; curly maple will have darker contrasting stripes. This can look good from a distance because the contrast can be more evident.

The difference with hand polishing is that the contrast will be slightly less but the chatoyancy is much more apparent. (The shimmering reflection that moves under the surface of the wood as the piece is moved).

The wood can be machine buffed without losing the chatoyancy but it is a fine line as to what is too much. Different woods will behave differently. Polishing by hand lessens the risk of deadening the shimmer.
 
Good points, and a great overall tutorial, Mark.

I do lightly machine buff my ironwood handles, but as you said, it's a very fine line to walk before you loose or dramatically lessen the chatoyance. I hand sand up to 2000 grit, and after I seal it up with Danish oil, I spend maybe 5 seconds TOTAL on each side of the handle at the buffer. That's not even 5 continuous seconds, but just a series of brief, light and quick passes under the buffer. Just enough to get the look I want. And ironwood being a pretty dense and tough wood probably stands up better to machine buffing than many other softer woods where I imagine "smearing" the grain is an even more definite problem.

On my next handle, I'm going to try and buff by hand instead of machine buff and see how it looks.

Thanks for the great information.

--nathan
 
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Nathan,
I am glad to see your post. In my opinion your knives have some of the best looking wood handles of any I have seen posted here. It looks like you have your process perfected with the ironwood.
 
Thank you very much, Mark! That means a great deal coming form a wood connoisseur such as yourself. I do like ironwood. It's God's handle material if you ask me. Unfortunately, I just haven't had much opportunity to work in many other woods, though I'm hoping to branch out some more soon. This information really does help out.

--nathan
 
Thanks for the great tutorial. I was in the process of making a set of scales from some rare and expensive burl. I will make some practice runs first but I am sure this tutorial saved me a lot of time and mistakes. Much appreciated.
Timo
 
Bit of a necro-post, but in this case I think the thread deserves bumping. :thumbup:
 
Good tutorial. Worth a necropost.



Timo5150 - Welcome to Shop Talk.
When you pull up a thread in a search, look at the date of the Op as well as the last post. Many threads, like this one, will be old ( five years in this case). Don't re-open old threads if not necessary. Start a new thread, and link to the old on as a reference.

Also, filling out the info in your profile will help a lot. It will tell us things about you, like where you live and how old you are. These will help with better answers, and allow a nearby maker to give you an invite over...or an offer of some materials or help you need.
 
As long as this subject has been revisited, I wonder Mark, if you can tell us the difference using your technique and hand rubbing with Tru-Oil or Arrow Wood Finish?
 
I was kind of surprised to see this old thread come back from the dead.
The method I showed in the beginning of this thread is how I still finish boxes and such using natural woods.

Below I show the method I like best for stabilized woods. This also works well for most natural hardwoods.
I took a lot of shortcuts so if you do things correctly your results will look much better than the photos below.

This is a reject block of maple burl that was dyed and stabilized by K&G. Sanded to 80 grit.
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Sanded to 400 grit
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Sanded to 600 grit. You can see that 600 grit is when the wood starts looking good. The finer you go from here the more defined the grain and figure become. I stopped at 600 grit because that was the finest sandpaper I had on hand. Best results come at 1000+ grit.
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Using an oil blend like Danish Oil or Tung oil I wipe on a light coat. The reason I prefer an oil blend over something like linseed oil id because the blend tends to fill small pores especially with multiple coats.
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After 15 or 20 minutes I wipe down the wood with a dry cloth. I let that sit and dry for a couple hours and then apply another coat. Repeat until everything looks good to you.
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After letting the handle dry overnight I apply a generous coat of paste wax.
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Then about an hour later I hand buff with a soft cloth. Like polishing a pair of shoes.
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These photos show the block sanded to 600 grit and only one coat of Danish Oil. If you sand your handle to 1000+ grit and apply 3 or 4 coats of oil your results will be much better.
 
Varathane used to be polyurethane. The problem with finishes is that often chemicals are mixed , and the terminology is also !! I had a talk with a finish chemist and he admitted that he was often confused too !!
I'd carefully read the instructions to make sure your use is the one a finish is designed for .Try it on sample pieces first.
 
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