Need help, I am having trouble getting the grain to fill in. Have an American Walnut stock I am refinishing. I put 5 diluted soaking coats of Formby's on the sanded stock. I am at the 8th coat of wet sanding and still have open grain. I could not find 600 grit so I am using 800....Suggestions

You can fill the grain with what is called a mud coat and you do it just after the soaking costs. After meaning when it is dry, give it at least a week. The mud coat is done using 320 grit sandpaper with a backing block of some sort. The resulting slurry of wood and finish is rubbed around and left on the stock to dry for again a week or so. You then wet sand the mud finish just back to the wood.

Oki,

One of the many things that separates the Pros, like Chic, from us amatures is that they have more patients than we do!

The first time I did a stock I tried to rush the process and didn't let any of the first oil coats or the mud-coat dry long enough. When I started wet sanding it I ended up going through to bare wood in few spots and had to start all over.

Here's what I do now, and it seems to work pretty well for me:

1. Soak the stock in Tung oil sealer for an hour or so and then let it dry for two or three days, sometimes even more.
2. Apply a good coat of Tung oil spar varnish and let that dry for at least a week. Don't worry about any dust, that will just become part of the "mud" used to fill the grain when you start wet sanding.
3. Mix up some Tung oil and Tung oil sealer (about 4 to 1 oil to sealer) and use that as a wetting agent on the paper. I'm not sure why I started using the sealer mixed in but I did and it seems to help the process. Perhaps just my imagination...but I use it anyway.
4. I have a bunch of hard rubber blocks that I have made up in various shapes and sizes out of those blocks used to clean sanding belts, and also some regular old rubber erasers, that I use to wrap the 320 grit wet or dry paper around. You can cut and form these to any shape and contour you want.
5. Start in sanding (using lots of wetting agent) and work up enough "mud" to completely cover the wood. Like Chic said, it's the mud that fills up the grain. The "mud" is made up of wood dust, the dried spar varnish, and the oil/sealer wetting agent. Smear it all over to coat the stock with your fingers. Let that mud dry for at least a week.
6. Using just tung oil as a wetting agent now I start the sanding process again with a good supply of soft paper towels standing by to gently wipe the mud off as it starts to form. Don't wipe too hard because you want to leave some oil on the wood.

If you do the sanding with a good bright light source at a angle to your work you can see where you may have built up spots to work on. After you wipe they will show up as shiny spots.

When I'm happy with it I let it sit for a day or two then rub the stock down with Rottenstone or pumice applied with a hard smooth felt pad and a few drops of either tung oil or linseed oil as a carrying agent.

I like duller finishes so I do the whole job with 320 grit paper from start to finish...but you can certainly go to progressively finer grits if you want to.

The key, no matter what specific materials you use, is to allow the coats to fully dry...and to use plenty of wetting agent so you don't go through the built up finish and back down to bare wood.

I would use some paste wood filler. Make sure and get the walnut color stuff not the pale tan kind. It will do the same thing as making mud with dilute spar varnish. Either way will work fine though.

Save the Formby's tung oil for another project... First, it's thin therefore won't build very fast as you are experiencing. Second, it's more alykd varnish and mineral spirits than tung oil, and lastly Formby's has only moderate moisture resistance and is not rated for furniture that will be handled frequently...

Get a small can of Man O'War Gloss Spar Varnish in a good hardware store like True Value/Ace, thin this and then sand it in like Bill Soverns recommends. Next, do a search on Chic Worthing (spelling corrected) posts and stock finishing and you will be reading for hours... Take notes.

quote:

Originally posted by Customstox:
The resulting slurry of wood and finish is rubbed around and left on the stock to dry for again a week or so. You then wet sand the mud finish just back to the wood.

Hardest part for me was determining when I "Just" got back to the wood. The first time or two I never reached it. The next I think I did more than "just" reach it. After than I began to think seriously of paying a "pro" to do it. Then I remembered that I'm too cheap.

I have had good results with McCloskys spar varish. Formbys like the others said aint very good stuff.

Seal the stock with spar reduced 50% to soak in deep a couple coats. Sand up some mud like Chic said , wipe it into the grain and let it dry , then wet sand it back to the wood with 400 wet or dry and repeat till the grain is filled.

Im going to try some of that Bone Black added to the spar varnish to give certain stock blanks woods black pores.

Then use one of the danish tung oils like Dalys, Watco, or Deft for top coats.

Play around and figure out your own secret formula...or method that works easyest.

Thanks for the reply's. New I was missing something and now I know what. Will change over to a different tung oil with additives and I had misunderstood the sanding portion. ;lkj. OOPS, dang dog, need to teach this confound Airdale to type so she will leave me alone....again, thanks !

Lost Oki,

The great thing with finishing a stock in this fashion is that if you totally Fu*k it up all is not lost! Just sand it back down to bare wood and try again. Same goes for repairing any future scrapes, nicks or dings. Just sand down the area around the what you want to fix to bare wood and do the process over again.

Like GSP7 said...play around with different oils and sealers and find out what works good for you. Someone like Chic could probably tell you if different types of wood "like" different oils or not. Have fun!