Tips on Tru oil ?

[monterey]

I use several coats of shellac to prep wood for tru oil and put it on thin with fingers.  Gotta let it dry!!!

[Walt Francis]

Monterey, Do you use canned shellac or flakes?

[Sixby]

Here is one that is two coats from finish.

 

[NIGEL01]

So when doing the 0000 wool inbetween coats, you're wanting to completly dull it back down?  I'm on third coat right now and it feels like I'm taking off everthing I just put on.  The wood seems to be getting smoother, but do you need as many coats on the glass limbs?

[Sixby]

I only coat the limb surfaces a couple of times. I do all the edges as many times as the riser to completely fill the wood and seal it./ I save the final coat on the glass until last and then apply a very smooth coat on it. Prior to that I just coat and sand with 400 until the limbs are completely smooth.
God bless you, Steve

[monterey]

Originally posted by Walt Francis:
Monterey, Do you use canned shellac or flakes?

Walt, sorry to be so slow responding on this.

I use bullseye shellac from the big box stores.  It seems to also be called Zinser.  Follow directions to cut it with alcohol.  I also use several coats of shellac on gunstocks.  Especially walnut with it's open grain.  Several coats of shellac will fill the grain in walnut, whereas it can take 6 or 8 coats of tru oil alone to fill it.

Was using tru oil on exotic woods that I used for knife scales.  It never seemed to really seal the wood or create a permanent finish.  Then I notices on Texas Knifemaker dot com that they suggested using a filler on the grains of those woods.  With several coats of shellac before the tru oil, the scales kept a nice sheen that held up to wear.