Rosewood disaster

[dan lemkin]

Hi,

I have run into a snag with some african rosewood. I made up a bunch of laminated clipboard with maple and african rosewood that was reclaimed from some unused flooring stock.

The stuff had a lot of resin on it. I wiped them down, and finished them with minwax wiping poly. The stuff is not drying. A glossy sticky film keeps resurfacing on the stuff...

Is there any way to salvage them? Is there anything I can use to seal the wood?

thanks
dan

[Joe Chritz]

I haven't used a lot of rosewood but the little I did was for knife handles and I just buffed it after sanding to a ridiculously fine grit.

I have heard of some success with dewaxed shellac as a barrier coat and other guys that have had it dissolve after a while. That leeching is really common with some african woods.

Polyurethane is positively the worst finish for getting it to stick. Personally, unless I needed some solid protection I would likely go for an oil finish without any varnish like BLO.

Joe

[dan lemkin]

I took your advice. Wiped them down with steel wool and applied a few coats of shellac. That did the trick. I finished them with a paste wax, and they look great.

thanks
dan