Finishing Ironwood

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Diamond G Knives

Well-Known Member
In the past my process for finishing ironwood was to finish to 800 grit then wax then buff. This is the first kitchen knife Ive done in Ironwood.

My question is this. Will Ironwood absorb any type of oil finish? If so, what do most folks use?

I was thinking a good penetrating type oil would be a good idea for a kitchen use knife. Just not sure though.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks and God Bless
Mike
 
I use two coats of Minwax Antique oil finish on all my wood handles. I use to use tung oil but I like the other better.
Scott
 
ironwood will absorb oil. I use Danish Oil which is mostly just tung oil with evaporants to help it dry quicker. You will get more chatoyance. I normally apply it for 30 minutes with a Q tip every few minutes to let it soak in, then wipe off and let it dry. Follow up with a buff with a clean buff wheel and then a nice wax coat for luster shine.
 
I know a lot of people don't think it worth the effort to hand sand up to high grits with ironwood, but I finish all my ironwood handles to 2000 by hand, followed by danish oil, followed by a *very* light buff. It still amazes me every time to watch the wood come alive when you go from 1500 grit to 2000 grit. All the character suddenly seems to pop out at you. Try going up to 2000 some time and see what you think.

Like Tracy, I "wet" the surface with danish oil and let it soak in, checking it every once in a while and reapplying when parts of the surface no longer look wet (as the oil is soaked in the wood). I keep going until the wood no longer takes in the oil, and then wipe off the excess and hand buff.

If I hit it with the power buffer, it is very briefly only, using a very light pressure. It's really easy to smear the grain of a wood handle by over-buffing, and then you loose some of the chatoyance and characater of the wood.

Here's a few that I've done with this method:

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--nathan
 
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Great finish Nathan.

That's interesting to know that the Ironwood will absorb oil as I was always lead to believe that it's too dense to take any onboard. I shall be revisiting the finishing of other dense woods based on that fact!
 
Nathan hmmmm is that a scratch , you might need to go up to 3000 . Soory I had too . ive got 150 sets of ironwood scales I know what it takes to get thenm like that . I have never gone over 1500 I might have to try. To reply to the adding oil to ironwoon you can use tung /minwax or even true oil is excellent . I dont because Ironwood is saturated in its own oil.
 
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