Tung Oil And Grain Filling...

[q83]

Hey guys,

I bought some off-the-shelf tung oil at a hardware store for one of my necks that I'm finishing. However I had originally sealed the wood with grain-filler because I initially wanted to lacquer it. Anyways the oil has been applied, and now one of my friends tells me that I'm stupid and that the oil isn't going to set in at all. Is this true? Am I screwed now to more sanding? Also, to get rid of the grain filler, could I use a higher-grit sand paper, like 220? I don't feel like sanding from 60 grit when I have so much other stuff to do at the moment. Thanks guys.

[Southpa]

I was under the impression that oil and true stain finishes should be laid on bare wood. I don't know if there will be any compatibility issues between the tung oil and the grain filler you used. But the sure way to decide whether or not to strip it back is to give it the fingernail test. If you gave the neck a good scuffing with a moderate grit sandpaper (180 to 320 grit) the oil might hold. Otherwise, scrape the finish with your fingernail and if it comes off too easily then you got your answer.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Southpa

[M_A_T_T]

What's your neck made out of? I read through some of your posts and didn't get an exact answer, but I get the indication it's maple...? If it's maple you didn't need to grain fill in the first place. I don't think grain filler would be a problem with tung oil, but regular tung oil kinda blows as a finish anyways, it soaks in too much, and can take a while to dry.

I'd personally use a product called Tru-Oil instead, you can get it at Walmart. You can actually apply oil finishes with sandpaper directly, sanding the oil into the wood creating a slurry that get's into the pores as you finish it, but this is only necessary on an open pored wood, if you want the pores filled.

Also, how much did you sand the neck? I would always go to around 1500grit as I recall, feels nicer the smoother you can get it.

[ryanb]

What kind of grain filler did you use? Some fillers will accept oil, some won't.

[Doc]

Take and make a ball of grain filler about half the size of a dime. Let it cure about 48 hours somewhere pretty warm, like on the top of your refrigerator. Put it in a plastic drink bottle cap. Fill it with your oil stain. See if it dissolves. If it doesn't, no problem. If it does 50-50 shot. Most folks don't grain fill for oil 'cause you're going to have a flat to just barely glossed finish and the pores barely show.

You're better off to wet sand a couple of layers of oil using the wet oil as a lube not water and let the slurry fill the pores.

[q83]

Wow, thanks for the info guys. To Matt, the neck is maple, yeah.

Anyways last night around 6pm I put on a coat of the tung oil (which isn't pure tung oil btw), and I just checked it 20 minutes ago. The oil seems to have soaken in, except for some areas where there was some excess. Anyways it has a slight shine to it, but still feels like bare wood. I'm assuming that this is typical, seeing as how I only put on a single coat. I'll continue for now and see what happens.

(I scuffed with 320 grit sand paper before I applied the oil, and I noticed that on the top of the headstock, which I will probably finish with lacquer, and which is grain filled, there are little shiny splotches that seem to have been the result of accidental contact with the tung oil, so I'm guessing it will work out).

Another question just came to mind, how many coats would you guys recommend? I doubt the can I got will be sufficient.

edit: Another note to the exceedingly long post, I just put on another "coat", by using 400 grit sandpaper. At the same time I put some tung oil on a recently sanded down Jackson neck, using 220 grit and 400 grit, and noticed a huge difference in color immediately, however the Tele neck (the one I was originally doing) had very little change in appearance.

Edited August 22, 2005 by q83