walnut scales finish

C

CyBaggs

Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Messages
11
The walnut scales on my Boker 547 bowie are kinda dry and unfinished looking and would look a lot better with a little teak oil or something to make a nice rich brown color and bring out the grain. I don't intend to use it, just keep it around and admire it. Any advice on this idea, types of finish options, to do it or not, whatever thoughts would be appreciated.
 
You sort of have it.
What you can do max is to sand wood with sandpaper up to 2000-2500 grit, polish using some polishing paste from car body department, let it soak a night in a light no-drying oil (like oil for kitchen cutting block), swipe dry and then cover with teak oil couple of times, letting it dry in-between. That should totally do it.
 
I wouldn't do that to walnut scales Poez. For walnut, I really like the ease and quality of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil. If just displaying, you can get away with a couple coats, for a user I like at least 7-10 coats. Apply with your bare hands to prperly prepped wood. Let dry, rub dwn with steel wool and repeat. Hang on the wall and enjoy.


I can give more details if you need.


-Xander
 
Thanks for the advice. Xander, what exactly do you mean when you say "properly prepped wood"?
 
Sorry for the late reply. Properly prepped means sanded to atleast 400 and then cleaned with a tack cloth, wipe with a wet towel and dry with the blow dryer to raise the grain and sand again to get really smooth. wipe with tack cloth again. Search on here for TruOil finish and you will find very detailed, commonly accepted ammendments to the included instructions. Mainly, it says it is dry in two hours, but realistically it takes closer to 8 to dry between coats.

hope this helps.


-Xander
 
I'm sure you have many options, but I'll throw this in.

I used Watco Danish Oil (mixture of Linseed oil, mineral spirits and varnish) on the Walnut handle of this Opinel. Sanded & shaped the handle with wet/dry paper, up through 1500 grit or so. After wiping it all down thoroughly to remove residual dust, I just applied 2 or 3 very light coats with a folded paper towel, the first two spaced maybe 30 - 45 minutes apart. I live in the southwest, so each coat didn't take more than 10 minutes or so to dry to the touch. I applied the 3rd coat a few days later. Turned out pretty good:
 
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