I am building a sewing cabinet for my wife. I am a hobbyist and this is my first big project. The case work is cherry plywood. (some plys are wood and one I believe is mdf.) The drawer faces and door frame is solid cherry. I finished the drawer faces by sanding to 220 and then simply applying boiled linseed oil (sanding it in with 320 grit), wiping off excess and letting dry ( a couple of coats) It turned out just the way my wife wants it. Can I do the same to the plywood? I have some iron-on pre-glued edge banding on quite a bit of the plywood. I am wondering if using oil in this fasion will loosen the glue on the edge banding, or the plywood itself or both. The veneer on the plywood is quite thin. Looks to be less than 1/64th. Thanks for any help.
Frank
Replies
If the plywood quality is good, you can do an oil finish. The veneer will be 1/42" or thicker.
I recommend a wipe on, wipe off application of oil. You'll get an enhancement of the grain without flooding the surface. You can follow this with a shellac finish, which when lightly sanded, will give a nice smooth surface that will be good for sewing. It will also seal in the stinky BLO odor.
The oil should not affect any glued parts if they are glued properly.
I would also sand up to 320 for cherry ply before oiling it. You can sand the oil to seal the pores, but it isn't critical.
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