Birch Ply/Danish Oil Finish - Green Stripes?

[brian watson]

I'm working on building some shop cabinets and in the interest of trying out some other finishes, I grabbed some natural danish oil to experiement with.

Well after sanding to 220 and tacking clear I applied some danish oil, let sit for 30 minutes, then wiped off. In a few spots on the wood (homey the D birch ply) I have some green stripes visibile after finishing that were not visible before.

Anyone seen this before?

[joe milana]

I cant believe you were able to do ANY sanding without blowing through the veneer. I am guessing the stripes are probably glue showing through the veneer. Maybe you did sand through the veneer and you are seeing poplar???

[John Schreiber]

Anything can happen with plywood anymore. I had a piece with plastic snow fencing in it recently. Another guy here reported finding a basketball. I had some birch recently which looked really nice until finished, then a series of lines showed up which made me change to a thicker stain which hid the grain and the problem.

[brian watson]

I cant believe you were able to do ANY sanding without blowing through the veneer. I am guessing the stripes are probably glue showing through the veneer. Maybe you did sand through the veneer and you are seeing poplar???

That is probably it.

Normally when I've sanded through the veneer on some big box plywood, i get chips/flakes but not this time. This is smooth to the touch, doesn't indicate a problem visually at all. Only shows after the danish oil is applied. There is one almost straignt line, a circle, etc. in some spots.

Different that's for sure.

[Howard Acheson]

Is this real baltic birch from Russia or Finland or the Chinese stuff from one of the big boxes.

What "Danish Oil" did you use?

[brian watson]

Is this real baltic birch from Russia or Finland or the Chinese stuff from one of the big boxes.

What "Danish Oil" did you use?

Its big box birch ply and Watco's natural danish oil.

[Howard Acheson]

>> Its big box birch ply and Watco's natural danish oil.

In that case, it's not baltic birch. Is a premium high ply plywood manufactured in the countries bounding the Baltic Sea. The big boxes do carry it. What they carry is a high ply Chinese made plywood that is very, very inconsistant. Some is OK but much of it is junk. It probably should be painted and never stained and clear coated.

That said, if you sanded the stuff, you may very well be seeing the veneer glue under the ply. If so, there's not much you can do about it except to paint it. The Danish Oil is an oil/varnish mixture and makes a nice undercoat for paint.