Screwed up bad!

[bucknut]

I just finished a really nice Osage self bow with rattler skins and put about 6 coats of tru oil on it.  Should have left it that way!  I thought I would spray a light coat of satin Spar urethane on it.  I lightly sprayed a test piece and all was good.  So I sanded her down and put a wet coat on it and now it is tacky all over.  Can I put a  coat of shellac on it and be good?  I know shellac will dry over anything, but will it still be a good serviceable finish afterwards with the under coats not totally hardened?  In hind sight I should have just used shellac from the start.

[Mad Max]

Don't do anything else for right now, wait,Pat B uses true oil all the time and he sprays something over it, so hold on


I PM him

[Pat B]

If your humidity is high Tru-Oil is slow to cure. Other than that I can't see why the Tru-Oil hasn't cured with what you've said and done. I would either wait for it to cure before adding more finish or lightly scrape the old finish off, rub down with 0000 steel wool and start over. More info would help if there is any.

[bucknut]

It has been slightly humid the last few days. It is Tacky about like when you wipe it with a tack cloth before finishing. Not so much that you leave a fingerprint after touching it though.  More so toward the tips. Which may be another issue. I strung it up and shot it before spraying the other day ( It shot mighty sweet I must say) and my top antler tip overlay moved slightly.  I used 5 min epoxy on it.  Probably another mistake. Maybe the Tru oil wasn't cured thru. I put on successive coats thru a 3-4 day period.  I let the last coat dry about 36 hours and sprayed it with the Urethane.  Maybe I should have let it sit for a week. Like you said before Pat.   "Patience grasshopper"  I just wanted to get it done so I could get a leather grip on it and get to shooting!   

[Mad Max]

I sprayed some finish on a bow one time, next morning I cam out to find it still tacky, the next day it was all good.
May take more than one day

[Flem]

Did you finish your test piece in concert with your Bow? It's hard to get an accurate read on how a finish will act unless your test piece has been finished on the same schedule as the objective.
Sound like you will be enjoying the patience that you missed out on earlier in the process
I don't use Tru-oil, but have used a lot of oils on wood. They need oxygen and can take a long time to polymerize. It will still happen, but you slowed the process WAY down with the Urethane.

[bucknut]

Yep ya can't fix stupid!!!  The test piece was one coat of each. Lesson learned. Would it help to throw it in the hot box at about 80 degrees?

[Flem]

That would help cure the urethane, but thats your main problem at this point. Best thing would be to get the urethane off, but that could cause a real mess. If it did not have snake skins on it, I would say take some solvent to it. Stash it somewhere out of sight and forget about it for a while. 

[Mad Max]

I would say don't do anything for a couple days

[bucknut]

Yes, If it weren't for the skins I would have sanded it down, chalked another one up to experience and no one would have known but me. I don't want to loose the skins unless totally necessary. I'll try shellac over them before I remove them.  I'm gonna let it sit a few days and see what happens.

[Pat B]

In my experience it's usually the first coat of Tru-Oil that won't set up if the conditions are wrong(humidity). Once that cures I give it a rub down with 0000 steel wool and go with the second coat. Be sure it is only a thin coat(all coats) and repeat 5 to 6 times. I just about always spray satin poly over Tru-Oil to cut the shine and the only time that didn't set was with an old can of poly. Is your poly old? Try a test with it and see if it sets.

[Bowjunkie]

I'd be more worried about the overlay moving. That should never happen. Five minute epoxy is a poor choice for any sort of bow work imo. I keep 10-12 different glues in the shop, but 5 min epoxy will never be one of them. I use Smooth On ea-40 for all overlays.

[bucknut]

I was actually going to use super glue on the overlay but thought the epoxy would be a better choice. I'm not a bow builder so I didn't have any bow epoxy on hand.  Pat the urethane was new.  Do you use water based poly on yours.  I was going to use poly but the can said indoor use only and saw the can of spar and indoor outdoor use on it.  So I bought the spar urethane.  The spar being oil based may be the issue? 

[Flem]

5 min. epoxy;

EA-40;

Inconsequential difference in tensile strength

[bucknut]

That may explain the overlay movement.  I put it in the hot box the night before trying to make sure the tru oil was cured.  Possibly heated up the epoxy enough for the tip to slide a little.

[Pat B]

What we use is Deft Depthane Polyurethane Clear Satin in a spray can. It only takes one quick spray on each limb to cut the shine.

[bucknut]

Thanks Pat.  The limbs seem a little less tacky today.  The tips where I sprayed it a bit heavier to get in the grooves are still pretty tacky though.