I recently made my first piece out of rosewood. I finished it with a wipe on tung oil. The first coat acted according to my prior experiences when used on woods such as walnut, cherry, oak. The second coat was sticky after 2 days. I finally roughed the finish with 220 grit and put on a third coat. It was sticky after 3 days. So I waxed it anyway. That seemed to work OK. Waxing was a little more difficult than normal, but the finish looked and felt great.
My ? is, is this a characteristic of rosewood, or is there a problem with my tung oil. By the way, the tung oil is only about a month old, and I’ve used it on some other pieces recently with no problem.
Thanks, Dave
Replies
I've had this same problem with padauk. I used Minwax Tung Oil Finish. First caot cut 50% with mineral spirits went on fine but succeding coats I'd get the stickiness that hung out for a while. I just smoothed it with 0000 and continued finishing. It usually turns out fine but takes more coats than maple/cherry/etc. The stickiness finally dried after like a week.
Jeffrey
Rosewood is one of those tropical,naturally resinous woods. That's why it's often left unfinished, except for perhaps waxing. Next time if you needed to apply a finish you could remove the outer layer of oil by wiping with acetone first. But this is a compromise because the oil soon wicks its way back to the surface.
I made a silverware chest and I thought needed some type of finish. What would you have done to finish a piece like this?
Thanks, Dave
Since it's a silverware chest, it's probably going to be handled with care and not subject to normal abuse. So a wax finish would be fine. That's probably what I'd have done, with the understanding that it will need occasional re-waxing.
As I mentioned, you could wipe it with acetone and then spray or brush on shellac as a sealer coat (same day) if you wanted more protection.
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