My first thread - Black Walnut finishing, not sure about..

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richlife

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Rich
Lots of good advice here and I won't argue with any of it -- but I will state my opinions and preferences.

-I don't like fillers on porous woods -- I find they alter the color and appearance of the grain.
-For first sandings through 220 grit, use a "random orbital sander" -- not just an orbital sander.
-I will complete sanding at 320 grit (by hand with the grain). I like the effect on the appearance and it's a great prep for the actual finishing steps. I don't want my finish work to obscure the original look of the wood.
-I can also recommend the Minwax wipe-on poly -- use gloss until the final satin coat. It's excellent, it's fast, it's reasonable in cost, and you don't have all the custom mixing. If you're going to use 0000 grit steel wool, be sure you practice with it and know what you are doing.
-This IS slow work. Don't be afraid to wait a day between finish steps. Use a light scuff sanding between days at a grit equal to your highest.
-Vacuum the surface for dust -- don't just use a tack cloth. Better than a treated tack cloth is the "velour" style non-treated "tack cloths" (no residues).

A nice option for black walnut is a base coat of blonde shellac to preserve the natural color tones and begin filling those pores. The added layers of wipe-on poly will complete the fill without damage to the color and appearance.

I would recommend stopping work on the large "desktop" and work on a smaller "lap table" size piece until you feel confident with the work you're doing. With any technique (wood, sanding process, finish, etc.) that is new to you, practice first with a sample piece.

In addition to my work with black walnut, I've found these techniques to be very effective with red oak tabletops which are MUCH more porous than the black walnut. The result is a hard, lasting finish with a beautiful, natural look that may have a moderately textured feel, but is durable and flat.

None of this will result in a "French Polish" -type look or feel. But if you should want that at some point, I highly recommend some of the "flattening" the techniques alluded to in this thread. They are clearly defined in Flexner's excellent book on finishing.

Rich
 

MissEmmaLee

New User
Emily
Ya know when you go camping... and the first pancake you make to test if the griddle is hot or not, and it ends up the Sacrificial Pancake? This is my Pancake.

After much sanding off the of the Danish Oil - took a lot of 80 grit with a small belt sander. The dust that came off was like little balls, and I just kept going until it was more like real dust. Then, it wasn't long before some water dripped all over it. Must have had some condensation with this weird weather we've had.

So, I more sanding, way down with a 40, then 120, I just put Mineral Oil/BB Oil to get the color back, and then did a couple of Poly-acrylic light applications. It looks great, little shiny for my tastes, but it's going to be a desktop, with stuff on it, so it may be better, actually.

I learned old microfleece that the Thrift Store sells by the ton, works really well for dust.
Tack cloth has a lot of goop on it, go easy.
I did a test piece (hindsight is 20-20, i know) and don't like the fillers too much either.

Seems like BB/Mineral Oil is the best for this Walnut. If I want to make something not so shiny, I could see using the Danish Oil after many BB oil applications.

Again, thank you so much, and look forward to making more stuff! (More pictures to come when I install it)
 
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