Natural finish

Hi all,

Just wish to say nice to join fellow WW for the first time on this site.

If you can help and steer me in the right direction.....I am after a recommendation for a good "natural" finish for a Jarrah project....nothing too glossy etc...just to nicely bring out the grain.

Cheers,
Phil....Perth WA

You can see my other thread about this:


http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=16023

Basically, I like a product called Arbortone by Dominion Plastic Industries. The equivalent from Intergrain is DWD or UVD. Sikkens have something called Supernatural but I haven't tried it.

I like to use a 50:50 mix of linseed oil and turps, followed by a good waxing with Organoil (in the plastic pot) once the oil has soaked in.

Cheers
Dan and Tom

Thanks for your reply.....

I have come across Organoil a few times but have never used it, but have had a couple of recommentations on this company and it's products....is it really good?

Cheers,
Phil

I think that organoil is good stuff and can lead to a very good finish on jarrah if you are prepared to follow the instructions. They make a range of things that are usefull, I think that for the wax mentioned above I have yet to use anything that beats the U-beaut traditional wax, depending on what the project is this is also worthwhile. I have found that spending a little time testing the finishes on the timber that you are using really helps. I used organoil on some cardwellia one time-lousy, however traditional wax brought it up nicely, but for a camphor laurel piece it was the other way around.

like PAH1 says, with organoil you need to really follow the instructions, and then some. If you want to bring out the Jarrah grain, be prepared to work really long and really hard. It's not easy. I know some professional furniture makers who tried to go the organoil route but gave up because they couldn't get the satin finish / good grain enhancement. You might think about some other methods like shellac or Tung Oil / Polyurethane mixes. Get hold of the Ubeaut furniture polishers handbook. (Marketed by this website host!!....)

Jarrah is pretty open grained so using an oil finish with a ROS is worth experimenting with. That takes a lot of the hard work out of the job.

I'm a fan of Danish Oil - but in the case of Jarrah if I wanted some grain-filling effect and a low to medium lustre I'd start with an oil - ROS allows wet sanding to make a slurry. Assuming your surfaces are flat of course.

Tung Oil / Polyurethane mixes

Such as Danish Oil I s'pose? Any other TOil/Poly mixes you could recommend Richard? I have a hall table I want to Danish Oil but at $30/litre (Cabots at local HW store) I'm looking for an alternative. Even pure Tung oil wouldn't cost more than that would it? And would it give the same protection, and sheen? :confused:

Rusty, I think Danish is what they call a "long oil" oil based finish. Meaning it has more than about 70% (?) oil and much less poly in the mix. So it can be worked in by ragging and wet / dry sanding / buffing etc. Whereas with a more even mix of Tung Oil and Polyurethane you get the good penetrative benefits of the Tung Oil, and the surface protection (heat and water resistance) and nice satin wood grain enhancement of the Poly. But without the overly thick / plastic look of the "pure" poly. Sorry to ramble on if you already knew all this.

I've made my own mixes of 50% tung oil and 50% poly (monocell, estapol, whatever). Two coats with a fine (320 grit) orbital sand in-between coats comes up a real treat. If you can spray on the coats, even better.

Or you can buy a ready-made mix - Feast Watson FloorSeal. It's called FloorSeal because I guess they market it at the flooring trade. But it's also an excellent furniture finish. Really hard, durable, water and scratch resistant. And comes up a beautiful satin finish with grain enhancement. If sprayed on it gives an exceptionally smooth / even finish on the second coat. (But you must fine sand between coats). A third coat gives a really deep / French polish look. A 4 litre (or maybe it's 5 litres?) tin of FloorSeal at my local paint shop costs $70.45 including GST.

But like most poly's, if you're working with light coloured timber, it'll produce a slight yellowing over time. Good luck with it.

Richard

thanks for that richard. very informative. I didn't realize Danish oil only had about 30% oil. I guess that explains why it gives (to my eye) a much nicer, more natural finish. I have tried Floorseal (I know of a 'French polisher' who is said to body up table tops with it and finish with just a couple of coats of shellac!). For this job I'm looking for a more natural look. Cost wise it might pay me to buy tung oil and estapol and mix as required. Trouble is with these two products is their tendency to gel/go off within a year. P'raps I shuld investigate some better storage methods. . Probably should start a thread on that subject. Anyone got any ideas?

Storage: stick the stuff in your fridge.

(No warranty express or implied!)

Rusty, Danish is a long oil mix, so it has MORE oil than poly. So you've got more than 70 % oil. (Not about 30% as you mentioned above). That's why Danish can be worked like an oil, but comes up with a more satin finish (because of the 25-30% poly). Just thought I'd clarify that again.

Richard