Does anyone know about hand rubbing out an oil finish with fine pumice. I was reading an older wood working book by Gottshall and he describes the process of
1) Flooding the work with warm linseed and turpentine 3 x in 24 hours
2) rubbing out with pumice stone and burlap
3) 4-5 coats of linseed/turpentine rubbed out with pumice rubbed out
4) final coat of just linseed and pumice
5) finished with wax
Anyone had experience with it? I like the idea of getting a gloss oil coat but am wondering if the rubbing out is worth it. I am a bit of a finishing perfectionist and don’t mind the work or time.
I am going to be finishing a spalted maple top (yes I know the hazzards of sanding spalted wood) and I don’t want to yellow the wood at all with either varnish or shellac. It has wonderful stripes of yellow, gray and white and I don’t want to dull the subtle color variations. I don’t have to worry about water or wear on the surface.
Thanks
Anna
Replies
The linseed oil will definitely add an amber color to the wood. For a colorless finish you will need to use a water based poly.
John W.
Anna,
Pumice and rottenstone have been the time-honored methods of rubbing out a finish to final high gloss. First, the finish is leveled to a completely even, matte appearance with 220-320 grit sandpaper, after which many finishers use higher grits (400, 600, 800, 1200) using waterproof (wet-or-dry) abrasive sheets and lubricant before going to pumice, then rottenstone.
Pumice leaves a slightly softer, semi-gloss finish than the much finer rottenstone.
But, there's a "problem" with both these abrasives. Any quantity of either contains quite a variation in particle size. This is especially true of pumice. Many finishers consider these materials unreliable and obsolete in comparison to modern automotive abrasive compounds. Rubbing compound (red) and polishing compound (white) are the modern replacements for pumice and rottenstone, respectively. The automotive abrasives are of very uniform size (far more so than the older abrasives) and are far more reliable as a material and readily available at just about any hardware or automotive store.
Additionally, "swirl remover" is an ultra fine abrasive, finer than rottenstone that puts the final glass-like polish on finishes that need such treatment.
Rich
ummm, sounds like step # 4 (oil & pumice - not rubbed) is really filling grain?? Not necessarily what you want, I infer. Also, as John said, BLO will surely change the color.
I don't have experience with this process you've described, but I do have lots of experience applying oil finishes. And, like others have said, oil will darken/amber/yellow the existing colors. Shellac and lacquer will also, but not as much. On the other hand, I find that the water borne finishes are too cool although some amber additive will warm them up.
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