Wood Finishing????

Michael J. Spangler

Michael J. Spangler

Joined
Oct 8, 2003
Messages
2,181
ok i'm not sert-up to stabilize.... and i'd like to finish a handle on a knife i have..... what can i use... its curly maple.... or for any woods.... tung oil? linseed oil? wood hardener? thanks a lot guys!
 
I use the minwax wood hardener, Mike. It works okay, but only for lack of a better method. I been thinking about hollering at Darren Ellis for some of that Nelsonite he sells.
 
awesome.... thanks i just need something quick and easy to find.... i'll go get some right now while the blade is in the oven..... promised one of my cooking teacher a little knife a ways back.... figured i'd do it today.... about a 3 in blade, hollow ground with a clip point 5160 steel. and of course curly maple handles, full tang. for lack of supplies its all pinned together with 1/4" thong hole tubing.... which is also good because the stock is 1/4" thick steel really heavy
 
Pat Percival at www.northcoastknives.com uses water-thin super glue. I tried it and it works okay, doesn't really penetrate all the way, but goes beyond just the surface - you can sand it afterwards and it's still hard.
 
well it seems to me that the wood hardener is polyeruthane with some acetone to thin it out so it penetrates before it hardens. thats what it smells like to me :barf: :confused: :barf:
 
Michael, Tung is a good choice for sealing the wood. Thin it well with mineral spirits (3 or 4 to 1 is common and 5 to 1 is okay too to begin with) for penetration and be patient for curing between coats. As it seals to the top you can mix it more thickly but the drying, or curing, time should be increased to 2 days between coats. Tung is also okay for finishing coats but leaves a low sheen or classic appearence. Tung in these modern times may not be the best but its use is centuries old. Tung takes time to cure (not to dry; cure).

Linseed will never completely cure. Lin-speed will. Such things as those, with Tru-oil included, are not the best choice for sealing the wood or filling the grain. It is difficult to fill wooden knife scales by wet sanding but Tung lends itself to that. Burly wood or those of figure will have pin holes in the grain. Those can be filled with pure Tung by dipping a pointed toothpick in the oil and depositing that droplet onto the pin hole. Any oil we use requires patience for drying and curing.

RL
 
Yes Roger ,oil requires patience, many thin coats .Thick coats cause problems .BTW linseed oil polymerizes and oxidizes in time .I've never worked with tung though I remember reading that it can cause allergic reactions as was found when GIs handled captured Jap guns in the war.
 
I mentioned this a minute ago in another thread but thought I'd say it here too. I've been using superglue to seal and fill most woods lately. I've had the most luck just dripping it onto the wood straight from the bottle and letting it dry for a day, then sanding it back and reapplying. After sanding out the final coat to about 1500 it polishes to a high, smooth gloss. Works real well for splintery wood like palm and ebony. I haven't tried it on any burl because they're usually already stabilized.

You can get the stuff in a good-sized bottle at Home Depot for about $6. This lasts me several handles. Beware the painful vapor!
 
for maple I use danish oil. apply a good heavy coat, let set for 5 minutes wipe off any heavy excess and then hand rub. let dry 24 hrs. recoat. do this 3-5 times. in between coats buff with 0000 steel wool and burnish with a piece of blue jean rag. when all coats are on and finished I then apply a coat of clear paste floor wax and buff with a loose wheel.

Hope this helps too,

Bill
 
FWIW,

In my Moran video he swears by linseed oil. Says you get 100% penetration. Soak over night, rub it dry, build your knife, rub it to death again. After that I use my 'wax' stuff to seal it up.

I've used it on 2 knives so far and really like it. Finishes that stay on top of the wood are a PITA when it comes time to final finish. Trying to match level of the metal bolsters to the wood is impossible - for me.

Stabilized or linseed oil soaked are my favorites. Heck if it's good enough for Bill Moran .....

Steve
 
I changed from Danish oil to Teak oil last year, because it is very thin and penetrates much better. Allow each coat to dry for at least several hours and sand before applying the new coat. I use 1500-2000grit SC wet or dry paper. Then after several coats, I do a few without sanding until it looks right.
This is for hard stable woods like Ironwood, Mesquite,the Rosewoods, etc.

For less stable woods and porous antler, I like to soak them in polyurethane glue-either Elmers or Gorilla Glue. These are fairly low viscosity and take a day or so to dry and will sink into the pores well. After drying, I will sand them down and do the oil treatment to soak into the soild parts.

The final finish that I use is to burn in coats of Carnuba wax with the buffer to get the desired look.
 
A place to look for ideas would also be woodworking magazines and books that focus on bowl-turning and other lathe-work. I did a little bowl-turning a few years ago, and I used anything from beeswax to salad-bowl finish to creat a glossy sheen. There was one thing I used that was better than anything I ever saw, and it came in a quart plastic bottle. It was simply called: Urethane oil. This stuff was runny and thin like hot maple syrup - much thinner than varnish or shellac. You could wipe it on and it would sink right in. But it wasn't like tung or danish oil. It hardened-up REAL HARD!

I can't seem to remember where I got it, but I think it may have been Highland Hardware or Packard if anyone wants to give it a try.
 
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