Hi,
I have just finished making a small music box of apple wood, as I wanted to keep the finish simple and it does not have to be very resistant, but have the colors of the wood come out, so I put two coats of boiled linseed oil (the first coat thinned), I have done the same a few weeks ago with a box made of service tree (I hope this is the correct name of the wood) and the result was beautiful, the colors became beautiful and brilliant, but now my apple-wood-box looks so dull, the wood is beautiful and has become much darker purple because of the oil, but it seems so flat and dull, can someone advice me what to do now in order to get some depth and brilliance to the box?
Thanks
Gal
Replies
My guess is there's little or nothing you can do to improve the colors on your music box now. Maybe the pros will come along and have something to suggest.
But I will rub your nose in it a little. :o) You're on your way now to learning the first law of finishing. If you don't know for sure how a particular finish will look on a particular wood, try it on some scrap before you make irreversible changes to an object that you've invested a lot of time or money or effort in.
Take some thinner or turpentine with a rag and try to remove as much linseed oil as possible. Linseed oil will keep getting darker and darker over time.At this time, you may not be able to remove a whole lot. A last resort is to power sand or plane off the oil.
Then clearcoat with a film finish; shellac,lacquer, or poly at the gloss level you desire.
Just a thought, but apple wood can have a great deal of reaction wood that looks dull when finished. Hopefully, that's not the case. It can look blotchy anytime.
Thank you all for the advises, I have surely learned my lesson, but I have found a reasonable solution, I have put wax on the box, and it now looks much better, very simple, but it works.
Gal
FWIW, following the lead of Rebecca Wittman, I once finished a piece of mahogany by first wet-sanding it with boiled linseed oil, and then varnishing. Glorious finish. For more information, read her book, Brightwork. Other than her devotion to foam brushes, there's tons of good information between those covers.
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