Wood Handle Finishing-- Newbie Question

[Josh Feltman]

My second Khukuri, and 18" AK with wood handle by Sher, is on its way. I've read a number of posts on wood handle finishing in the past, but without the search feature for basic members, I can't find any at the moment. Can somebody tell me if I have the basic steps down?

1. Sand the handle with progressive grits of wet/dry sandpaper, starting at around 200 and working up to about 1000 grit? Is it ok to use the sandpaper wet or will it affect the wood?

2. Once the handle is nice and smooth, apply a very thin coat of tru-oil with fingertip.

3. After tru oil is dry, sand with 0000 steel wool or 1500 grit wet dry paper until it looks like you are back to bare wood.

4. Clean off any dust and apply next coat of tru oil.

5. repeat as necessary, allowing tru oil 24 hours between coats to dry.

Am I missing anything? Is it worth all the effort or should I just rub some linseed oil on it?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Bill Martino]

Woodchucks?

Looks okay to me but what do I know. The dust bunnies never do anything.

 

[Walosi]

Josh - you have the essentials down pat. The original sandings, and the resulting surface, will determine your final result to a great extent (smoother is gooder). Your "touch" applying the oil will develop as you go along. Paper loads very quickly when used on an oiled surface, so I usually use only 0000 steel wool between coats, and let it load up. A short "whap" on the edge of a wastebasket will knock out much of the buildup in the steel wool, and it makes a smoother cut as it packs and wears. Not as many runs to to store for expensive paper, either.

 

[firkin]

Josh,

I'll add a couple of comments about things I've encountered trying to get that Walosi finish.

I wouldn't wet sand with water until you're certain that enough coats have been applied to completely seal the wood. Sometimes sanding freshly applied oil will help to fill the pores faster at the beginning.

I switch to steel wool after any pores are filled with well-cured oil. Too soon and I find that small pieces of the wool get stuck in the pores.

Sometimes a coat can take an extra long time to dry. If it never does, I use sandpaper to get back down to the wood, unless the surface is fully filled and leveled. You can really get a lot of steel wool particles stuck to handle in this case if you're not careful.

Sometimes letting a troublesome handle cure for a couple for a couple of weeks makes a big difference.

Have fun.

 

[Josh Feltman]

Thanks for the help, fellas. When I am doing the initial sanding, it should all be in one direction along the long axis of the handle, right? Also, how do you know when to switch from one grit to the next?
--Josh

 

[firkin]

Josh,

I'm no expert, but here's my take after a few handles...

With/aginst grain--depends on what you want to do.

Initial sanding/coarser paper:
If you're doing any reshaping, do whatever works, just make sure you finish along the grain and remove ALL grooves from the cross grain sanding.
There's some areas near the carved bands that you'll probably need to sand across the grain. You could also use the next finest grade for sanding across the grain and finish with the coarser with the grain to prevent leaving deep cross-grain scratches that will be hard to get out.

Filling pores:
If your'e trying to fill pores or grain in the surface by sanding wet oil, go cross-grain with the finer grits. Let dry throughly, and then sand with the grain until all the cross-grain marks are gone. This will leave more material in the pores.

Polishing with finest paper or steel wool: you can go cross-grain with a light touch, and again finish with the grain. Don't be afraid to do whatever it takes to polish up the carved parts, or the grooves will get gummed up. Use folded sandpaper or a bit off steel wool on a toothpick.

Burnishing with the smooth side of the paper or a bit of brown paper bag can help keep clean off any dust in those tight places. Or a light touch with a toothbrush.

Lastly, be careful not to bring down the edges on the carved ring. I smoothed out the ring on my first wood handle too much and had to do a little carving in the center of the handle to get enough grip back.

Go to next grit when every thing looks even and there are no scratches that look deeper. Polishing with the smmoth brown paper will help any deeper scratches show up. Sometimes you may have to go back one grade coarser and redo a few areas. The idea to get all marks from the previous grit sanded out, then go to the next finer one. Any shaping is accomplished in the initial sanding with the coarsest grit used.

Just use a light touch with the coarser paper and let the appearance of the wood tell you what to do.