what do you use to finish hardwoods ?

The sealer worked great. The tru-oil seemed to take a long time to dry. So then I bought some "Stock Sheen & conditioner" also from birchwood casey (Not for sale in California....gotta work good if it still has real chemicals!) On the directions it says if you are putting it on a fresh tru-oil finish wait "Upwards of 7 days to ensure a cured finish" before trying the conditioner. So there you have it. A tru-oil finish is not fully hard until after 7 days! No where on the Tru-Oil directions does it say that. Yet it sands a little gummy for me and I think I haven't been letting it dry enough.

As of right now I love the sealer/filler. Jury is out on the tru-oil.
 
Hmm good tips here. Never heard of Tru-Oil, goes to show how much of a rookie I am. I have stabilized wood that will be used soon, I'd imagine these don't need to be sealed?
 
well been playing with the suggestions

the howards stuff arrived just in time to go on a blade i made to demo no power tool use
hand tools only ..

blade could have benefitted from some more time spent on it to take out marks and such but as it was pretty hard steel and its not a paying job and i have customers orders to get out it was finished up this morning ,

stuff works , bloody nice finish to it the prep was only basic and this stuff covered a heap of sin's , as stated its not a for $ job , but a demo to show what was possible with only hand tools ( non electrical )


thank you all again for your input , i dont have the polyurethane head ache either which is a extra bonus ! Cheers!!

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Last nite I began experimenting with a two part epoxy finish from McMaster Carr. I'm hoping I can mix it in small batches and still have the catalyst "kick" and harden properly. I did end up with some tiny bubbles as it began to penetrate the wood but I don't know how close to the surface they are. My thinking is that an epoxy finish might be easier in the long run. I've used CA to finish but didn't like the smell or handling it. This two part finish has me worried in that it was completely odorless. even as I was mixing it the was no reaction smell between the main goop and catalyst. The instructions were all about mixing the entire lot of the two cans. I may have a failure with this stuff....haven't gone down to the shop yet.


I tried a spray finish over the top of the B-C sealer/filler and it orange peeled horribly so I think there is a bunch of linseed oil in all the B-C finishes. I actually think you could finish with the sealer and just wax it. I'm trying that on another scrap piece right now. The main trick to the Birchwood-Casey stuff is to not rush it.
 
When I use truoil I put on very light coats and usually allow 8 hours in between coats it seems to be working good I have 2 that I just finished I will be posting soon and you can check out how they look. I did not use a sealer or sand in saw dust so there are some pores but I think it gives it a tad better grip and looks fine.
 
i've heard that leopardwood is hard to make the grain "pop" out anyway, so it might not have been the best for this test. So while I do like how the birchwood casey sealer worked, I think I might need to find a better way of applying it. I put on 2 coats and lightly sanding with 220 and 400 in between, and then some 0000 steel wool. Then waxed. I had a time removing the sealer from the pins and tang without taking it down too far.

I was left with a satin finish that was a little duller than the shiny finish that was left after the first coat. It's shiney, but left the grain satiny, if that makes sense. It looks good, but the wood doesn't have any depth as I've seen in the past with similar techniques with oily/resinous woods and no sealer. It has a smooth even finish and really kinda looks neat. I'll see if I can get a decent pic in the next few days and post it up.
 
hey smallshop....Just an update.....here's the finished knife with the birchwood casey sealer stuff. It's easier than the CA finishes that I've done in the past. I'm certainly going to try it again and probably use this on lighter colored woods and user knives.

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That looks pretty nice! And that sheath is a beautiful match to the scales! The sealer look like it filled all the pores. That BC sealer does add a bit of color doesn't it?

I did some testing with the 2 part stuff in small batch (one ounce) and it worked real well. I am playing with thinning it a bit more with xylene to see if I can mix easier and if it will go deeper into the wood.

Mud....you do not need to seal the stabilized wood. Just test for any reaction between the stabilization material and your top finish.
 
Smallshop said:
That looks pretty nice! And that sheath is a beautiful match to the scales! The sealer look like it filled all the pores. That BC sealer does add a bit of color doesn't it?
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It worked really well to seal it. But I'm not sure that it changed the color. With the first coat, before I sanded it, the wood looked like I had simply dunked it in oil, shiny and bright and made the grain kinda pop. As I sanded down, reapplied sanded down and used the steel wool on it to smooth it, it lost it's luster. It kinda dulled or flattened the finish to what you see now. It's not really 3 dimensional like you would see in a curly maple....but it was like that with the first coat unsanded...which it could just be the wood. But of course you can't leave it unsanded because it's very streaky and bumpy and just wouldn't be a good way to leave it. none the less, I'm happy with the way it turned out.
 
I mix Tru-oil (60%) with refined inseed oil (40%), depending on humidity, you can adjust somewhat from 50/50 to 70/30. I found the 60/40 worked good for me here in Alaska.
 
has anyone else ever tried water based polyurethane? cant get past no odor and 90 minute recoat. and it is made to use on floors, so the finish is designed to be used. the only thing that will damage the finish is 70% or stronger alcohol.
i have tried numerous oils, they all need an overnight cure and all have a strong odor. plain mineral oil like you use on cutting boards works ok, but it will sweat in the heat
 
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