handle finishing question

[Jon Shade]

I generally tape off the spine of my knives so that I can finish the handle with tung oil. This always seems to leave me with a fine raised line between the handle and spine. Am I using too many coats of tung oil or should I not be taping the spine off at all when hand rubbing a finish on the wood? May be there is just a better way of going about this? Thanks in advance! Jon

[Emmons]

Jon,

Try the tung oil without taping the spine.  I apply the tung oil with my fingers and on the first application I keep adding tung oil in order to keep the wood wet for about 30 minutes.  Then I wait 10 minutes and hand buff.  This will remove the oil on the spline and surface of the wood.  I then let it dye for 24 hours.  Then I will put another light coat of tung oil on, wait 5 minutes, hand buff, and let dye for a couple of hours.  I will do around 5 coats like this.  Then a really quick machine buff without compound.  With oil finishes you want them in the wood not on top.  I only use this method on wood that are not porous or oily.  Works great on osage and stabalized woods.  With walnut you need to wet sand in the tung oil.  With woods like cocobola I seal and sand several times with thin ca glue and different grits up to 2500 grit and only added two coat of the tung oil at the end using the first method I described.

James

[kbaknife]

I was a little surprised a few months back when I actually read the instructions on the tung oil I have been using for years!
I was putting on a coat and then letting it dry overnight, then rubbing out with #0000 steel wool and repeating.
Wrong!
Mine says to only let it sit on the material and then wipe off all of the excess after 10 minutes, buff, and then let dry overnight.
Repeat.
Now my finishes are very nice and very simple.
There is no reason to tape off any steel surfaces because if done by the instruction that I see, you'll just wipe it off.

[Jon Shade]

You know Karl, I have never read the directions on the back of my tung oil either. I will try this in the future. James, I have one of your knifes. If I could ever finish a handle off half as good as you, I would be tickled pink! Thanks gentlemen! Jon