Help with clear coating after woodburning

[Terry Starch]

I recently built 2 small jewerly boxes for a friends daughters. I Burned their names in the lids. I coated them with boiled linseed oil. I then sprayed with MinWax Polyurethane out of the spray can. My concern, The minwax will not dry over the burned part. Why is this? Its been 4 days and still tacky..

[Dave Gaul]

Sounds to me like the poly is too thick where the burning is... you filled the valleys created by the burning process with poly and it is too thick to dry "quickly"... make sure the pieces are in a good area for drying, may just need more time to dry.

Could it also be that the BLO didn't have enought time to dry before spraying the poly?

Or... can the BLO soak through the burned part of the wood? Never tried it before so I dunno...

LOML like to do burning, and I've coated with poly and polycrylic on many pieces with no problems...

[Scott Holmes]

I think Dae's on the right track. How long between the BLO and the spray poly? When you say coated did you wipe the excess BLO off the project after 5-30 minutes.


Some people let BLO soak in for 20-30 minutes, I usually wipe it then after about 5 minutes wipe it dry. Let it dry and cure for at least 24 hours. Many will agree that a light spray of de-waxed shellac (Zinsser aerosol) is the best barrier coat to help the poly stick.

[Terry Starch]

I wipe BLO on with a rag. I dont let the BLO sit, whatever it soaks in as i wipe is what it gets. I leave it dry for atleast 24hrs then poly coat. Thanks for the replies. Ill try letting it sit longer.

[John Coloccia]

If it's only a problem over the woodburned places, I'm going to guess that you got contamination from the iron. Perhaps the iron was previously used on wax, for example, or something that contains wax like a burn in stick.