Can Tru Oil be polished?

[leeman]

Can tru oil be rubbed out with swirl remover like lacquer?

after 10 coats, I have a bit of a bumpy finish!

 

[jackthehack]

What kind of wood did you tru-oil? Did you grain fill/seal it first?

 

[leeman]

maple on mahogany. The mahogany is kind of open pore, its actually the maple that is a littly bumpy

 

[jackthehack]

Sounds kinda like what I'm seeing on my Korinacaster Plus DX project I'm working on; wanted to try a tung oil finish - very much like tru-oil, and on the pourous Korina body it's like glass after 9 coats. I have a wild flame maple/rosewood neck, and I decided to try tung oil on that instead of shooting it with nitro. The back of the neck is fine, but the flat front/back surfaces of the maple peghead weren't coming out smooth/uniform.

What I'm doing, which is working, but painful, is I keep sanding down the finish with super fine sandpaper - 800/1000 grit in between putting extremely light coats of tung oil down. Slowly, but surely this seems to be working, but it's very labor intensive.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

When I finish my necks and bodies with Tru Oil, I use the oil with ever increasingly finer grits of sandpaper beginning with 200. I use a small amount of oil and sand until it's worked into a pliable paste and then rub this into the pores before letting it cure for a couple hours. I then repeat the process with a progressively finer grit until I reach 600. I do this three times with 600.

From here out I simply apply a small amount of oil and rub it in until my fingers become hot from the friction -or- I use the oil and apply it like I would do for a French polishing application

all the best,

R

 

[Wyliee]

I steel wool between Tru-oil coats.  After a couple base coats, I apply and rub it in with more pressure.  This gets me more of a gloss finish.

I have a bass that was finished with Tru-Oil and I use Birchwood Casey Gunstock Wax to maintain the finish.  I wipe it down about once every six weeks and buff it with a tac cloth.  The maintains a nice soft glow.

-Eric.

 

[leeman]

I have the pores filled now, but what I mean is, has any one used mcguires swirl remover on tru oil, does that work, or will it damage the finish?

 

[Ayrton]

I have wet sanded Tru Oil and then polished it no problem. Be gentle unless it has cured for a week or so, but you can polish it out.

 

[leeman]

Thanks-

Well, I did it and it worked fine- it really looks just like a lacquer finish now. Only complaint is the scratch marks left by the grey scotch-brite polishing pad are hard to get out. They should make a finer grit, something between grey and white.

 

[jenisara]

When I finish my necks and bodies with Tru Oil, I use the oil with ever increasingly finer grits of sandpaper beginning with 200. I use a small amount of oil and sand until it's worked into a pliable paste and then rub this into the pores before letting it cure for a couple hours. I then repeat the process with a progressively finer grit until I reach 600. I do this three times with 600.

From here out I simply apply a small amount of oil and rub it in until my fingers become hot from the friction -or- I use the oil and apply it like I would do for a French polishing application

all the best,

R

I'm interested the way you apply the tru oil.I'm new for this and I'm going to do my first project.The way you apply tru oil sounds like you use tru oil as a filler,right?I've read many people apply tru oil in many different ways but yours sounds good to me,especially the way you prepare the wood with tru oil-sand,the oil is already in the process before you ever apply tru oil as a finish.I'm going to finish my mahogany body which I think mahogany is very easy to get dent.Does tru oil harden it a bit to prevent dent or scratch?Can I apply tru oil on mahogany the same way you do or do I need a filler? The neck is wenge and I'm goind to fill the pores which's very deep and then finish it with tru oil as well eventhough I know,wenge doesn't need a finish but to keep the filler in pores and add a bit more protection to it,or do you have any thing to concern,please suggest!

 

[Keyser Soze]

Tru-oil, allowed to dry properly (a couple weeks minimum, longer is better), can be wet-sanded and polished to a very high gloss.  But be careful, since it is an oil based product it becomes very plastic (ie. it will melt, stretch, get gummy and nasty) if you allow any heat to build up during polishing.  Keep the polishing wheel/buffer moving at all times unless you want a burn through.  I use a flannel buffing wheel and Dico plastic buffing, and white rouge compounds.

 

[stubhead]

If you read up on the "French Polishing" method, what Jack is doing is very similar, except he's using the Tru-oil instead of thinned shellac and wet/dry paper instead of pumice.
So, maybe it's more like "Portuguese Polishing?"  :hello2: I did something quite similar on a neck (only) and it came out just ducky. The sandpaper grit & sawdust become the filler. I'd recommend practicing a bit on scrap, because you have to control the sticky/thinny parameter or mop up and start over a lot. Trust me.... ???

http://www.milburnguitars.com/fpbannerframes.html

 

[Who?]

You can polish it using rottenstone mixed with the oil as a lubricant.  That is the traditional way, but you are probably better off using finer grits of sand paper with the oil as a lubricant.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I use rottenstone on a felt pad for shellac finishes on furniture and oil finishes on gunstocks.  It yields a particular kind of soft satin finish that matches well with real antiques.  But that's about it.  Other than creating old school effects the modern products (sand papers, micro mesh, etc.) are the way to go, especially if you are going to take it all the way up to a high gloss polish.