Finish frustration

[Steve Busey]

I've been trying to complete this bowl for quite some time. Been putting coat after coat after coat of Antique Oil on it, but there are a couple spots on either side of the top ring that do NOT take the finish (see in yellow bordered area)! It seems like they just soak it in and ask for more the next day. I must have more than two dozen coats applied, mostly to that area. The rest was satisfactory with 2 or 3 coats. At one point I even took out the gouge and cut the finish off, resanded the top two rings and started again - same problem. Tried MS wipe, dry and oil, but same result. Any clues? I'd like to get this flipped around and cut the foot off so I can have my chuck back! Thanks for any ideas that might help!
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[curtis rosche]

either just keep filling it with your finish, or get one of those sealers, sanding sealer or grain sealer or what ever its called.

what wood is it?
you could also try mixing some of your finish with ca glue, then it would be hard and it would have the same color as the rest.

[Dennis Peacock]

Antique Oil is a type of varnish blend. You can try sanding with 400 grit sandpaper dipped in the finish and sand those areas while the finish is wet and allow it to sit and dry....then see how it looks. Sometimes, there are spots in wood that just doesn't like taking a finish for one reason or another.

Frustrating? I understand...totally.

[Roger Wilson]

I'd second the sealer on the problem spots. Try Zinssers seal coat shellac (it's blond and wax free), then your antique oil.

[Steve Busey]

I'll go try your idea first, Dennis. If that doesn't work, I'll probably scrape the top two rings' finish off and put down a base sealer coat first. I'm hesitant to put on a sealer over 2 dozen coats of oil and don't want to get too experimental. This is a sentimentally important bowl - it was on my dad's lathe when he died last year. I've been waiting and learning turning for over a year before I attempted to complete his final project.

[David Wilhelm]

I think if it were mine I'd wet sand back down 4-600, seal coat everything. (wax free) sand to 400 2nd coat, sand to 6-800. Then mop on the minwax AO and rub it in.

[Gary Max]

It's possible that it just something in the wood-----oil/stain/moisture---and it will not take a finish.
We just had a fight with some Tanic Acid and spent 6 months getting a good finish on a table top. We used a wood cleaner/dewaxer after we stripped her down and finally got the finish to take.
Sometimes there just aint a easy answer.

[David Newson]

I would say also to use sanding sealer or shellac based sealer, several coats to seal the grain, and rubbing down between coats.

[Chip Sutherland]

I am with David on this one. End grain will suck up finish. You've got to seal the grain. I have 2 cans of Zinssers BullsEye next to my lathe now. Wish I'd learned this one earlier myself.

Something else I didn't do early on....cover the lathe ways/rails if you are spraying shellac or applying finish to the piece on the lathe. It's not fun cleaning it off a couple of months later when the banjo starts sticking.

[Steve Busey]

Wow, I love this forum - so many great ideas & experience to tap!

I tried Dennis' trick of wetsanding with some AO, but that got pretty ugly, so I scraped and sanded off the entire outside finish. Will put some sealer on it tomorrow (after making sure my old can of sanding sealer is still good - got it on some test oak for now). I may end up with wipe on poly on the outside, since the AO darkened up the wood more than I wanted. But the interior AO came out fine, so I expect I'll leave that alone.

[David Newson]

Steve - I have found mixing your own shellac is the best, this tip was given by Jimmy Clewes at our club, and he recommended 60-40 super blond shellac flakes and methylated spirits, the only downside it takes longer to dry than cellulose sanding sealer.