Hi. I’m working on a hand carved sign wedding gift and am having finishing issues with Danish oil. Highly figured western maple. Sanded to 220, applied 3 coats of Danish oil (flood first, 2 thinner coats), am letting it dry for several days before applying dewaxed shellac. Tried shellac for the first time on the back (non carved) side and it looks great. Actual show side has developed gray blotchy spots. Looks terrible. Seems like getting worse as days go by. See carving pics – gray areas above and to right of the lettering. Third pic is of back. I know, carving could be better….
Any ideas on what to do on the blotchy side? Wet sand with thin coat of Danish oil? I’d hate to have to wait another week for oil to dry before I can try apply shellac.
Thanks
Ken
Replies
If you like the look of the shellac then you may have to bite the bullet and sand the front to bare wood and start again. It’s no fun but the back does look nicer. Since this will likely not be handled much, why not go with only shellac?
Personally I always put down a couple coats of shellac before any poly or wiping varnish. Usually even before glue up to help ease the pain of cleaning glue squeeze out and eliminating the need to finish interior surfaces.
I think you're fine. Once you're certain the danish oil is cured sand again and blow it clean to get as much of the packed dust out/off as you can. Sanding off/ through some of the oil on the surface is fine... then put the shellac on.
There's a ton of end grain in the carved areas so wait longer if you're not sure it's cured.
That figure is gonna POP!
Thanks all. I will try to sand off and add a coat of shellac and see. Thankfully, I will be painting the letters, so I don’t need to worry too much about getting those cleaned up completely. Worst case I remove the shellac with DA and start over. Someone did mention to wet sand with mineral oil, but I’ll try dry first.
I thought the Danish would help and wanted to try something new with shellac, but I guess not.
Much appreciated!
Mineral oil will never dry. Avoid it. Shellac sands just fine without doing anything fancy.
The Danish helps pop the grain. Mineral oil takes a long time to "dry", I would not use it on something I was going to be coating anytime soon.
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Danish oil is most often a thinned varnish with some oil, usually BLO. So it might not act like you thought it would.
Thanks for the insight, all.
I was able to sand a bit, then apply the shellac. Still a bit of cloudiness, but much better now. Good enough.
I’ve watched McLaughlin use only Waterlox. 3 coats, sanding with 0000 steel wool between each coat. Thin the danish oil with 25% paint thinner first.
I’ve also seem him base coat with shellac which allows more control.