I am in gun smithing school and I have carved two stocks but I am having touble with the finishing. I can not seen to get the pours filled. I sanded to 350 then applied each coat liberally. I let set for half to a full hour then wiped off excess. I then steel wool after a day or so.
Thanks for any tips.
Replies
The school instructor is no help?
Anyway, I rarely use walnut so I would be of little help. Besides i'd never call myself a 'finisher'..
I did find this link that I read and it seems to have good advice. Seems a bit strange to me in some parts but I would guess a gun stock has special needs.
See: http://www.accurateaction.com/articles-display.php?itemid=2
Are you referring to real, 100% tung oil or one of the many faux "tung oil finishes?" Oil finishes do not fill the pores or grain of the wood. Instead, they are penetrating finishes that are absorbed into the wood. If you want a grain filling finish, you need to use a film finish like varnish.
The instructors have helped but thier tips on grain filling have not helped. I am useing real tung oil which, if you are correct, would explain the trouble I am having. Thank you for the help.
I only have used the 'so called' real tung oil from Rockler. I guess it is real.. I see no reason that they would try to fool us. They have been in business for along time..
Real tung oil takes a LONG time to dry! No expert on this but I have used it.. I'd think about a month or two to dry untill the next operation on your wood... ???
I could be wrong but think not...
AS for your instructor... I'd bet he is mostly a metal worker and not a wood worker.. He is NOT the bad guy at all. Just other media to work with that he may not used very much.. Practice makes perfect.. I wonder if my spelling is as good...??
I am a old metal worker but I fixed Army tanks! Could I make a firearm? Hardy in my best dream at night......
With real tung oil it is very hard to fill pores but if you had to do it in that way, then you would be sanding the tung oil while it was wet to create a slurry of oil and saw dust. Then let it penetrate a little more, and wipe off all excess with a cloth working across the grain to avoid pulling it out of the pores. You would next let it cure in reasonably warm and dry quarters for a good three days, and then repeat the process of sanding in the tung oil. You might begin to get the pores filled after 3 or 4 attempts if you are lucky. Then apply a couple of more coats of tung oil, liightly sanding with 320 grit giving each coat a good three day drying time. Steel wool will actually help pull material out of pores while you are trying to fill them. Even without trying to fill pores, it takes about 5 coats of pure tung oil to achieve an even satin sheen. Remember when using a pure oil you should not be expecting to have a film on the surface, just an in-the-wood finish.
. Pure tung oil makes a very poor finish, slow drying, and even when applied correctly offering almost no protection to water spotting. It can, if your mouth isn't held right when applying it it can develop a kind of "frosty" appearance, which can only be fixed by stripping it off. As a consequence manufacturers have improved the finish by changing the ingredients. Some market an oil/varnish mix to be used the same way as the oil, but which gives much more protection. Minwax TungOil Finish is of this kind. Others have substituted a wiping varnish. Formby's is such a product. Much more protective, and a somewhat different appearance, though that depends a lot on how it is applied.
Personally, even if I wanted an in-the-wood oil finish appearance, I would use an oil/varnish mix to achieve the same look with better protection.
If I wanted a film finish, I would use a commercial pore filler to fill the pores and then use wiping varnish to achieve the sheen I desired. The other alternative is to use a polymerized oil. This is often done on gun stocks, with the frequent example being TruOil which is polymerized linseed oil.
Tung Oil on Walnut
I am a finisher! I have finished many walnut pieces with tung oil. An earlier poster hit upon the problem, you are using real Tung Oil. Finishing can be done this way but, requires around a thousand coats to fill all the pores. Funny, I know, There have been three thousand year old wood boxes dug up from the ground in China. These boxes are finished in tung oil and exibit no rot. Problem is after some analiysis, they have counted as many as eleven hundred coats. If you were a slave of the Emperor,you could do this, We don't have that kind of time. So today, we use tung oils that are mixed with varnish. There are several good manufacturers of these sorts of materials which can be purchased from your local hardware or specialty houses. The secret is to do as much sanding as posible prior to your first finish. This will tighten up the pores and not raise the grain much,after coating. Following coats should be sanded thoughly but, lightly. Use 320 and 400 grit. Vacuum with a good furniture brush, then hit with a tack cloth. Expect to do no less than five or six coats. Repeat all steps between coats, up until the last one.
Good Luck
Phil
Phil has given good advise, though it should be noted that many of the commercial tung oil "finishes" don't just mix varnish with tung most of them have little if any tung oil, and are generally mixes of linseed oil with varnish. Some others are just varnishes--Formby's is such a varnish, manufactured with soya oil and alkyd resin.
Phil has given good advise, though it should be noted that many of the commercial tung oil "finishes" don't just mix varnish with tung most of them have little if any tung oil, and are generally mixes of linseed oil with varnish. Some others are just varnishes--Formby's is such a varnish, manufactured with soya oil and alkyd resin.
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