Tru-oil Not Curing Over Rosewood

[madhattr88]

I'm having some problems with a rosewood headplate not curing.

I've never had this problem before with Tru-oil and rosewood.

Sealed it with birchwood Casey sealer

Waited 3 hours

Filled with oil based filler

Wait 24 hours

Sand 320

Sealed again

Wait 3 hours

Filled again

Wait 24 hours

Sand 320

Sealed again

Wait 24 hours

Start applying TO

Everything was fine until the 3rd coat of Tru oil

Now it just gets "gummy" and soft when I hit it with scotchbrite.

Any ideas what I should do??

I heard I should have wiped with denatured alcohol before sealing for the first time. Anyone try this?

[Quarter]

I've had trouble with some oily rosewoods and True Oil, the natural oil gets into the mix and can take forever to cure, if it ever does. Wiping down with isopropyl alcohol first may help and a shellac seal coat should provide an effective barrier coat too.

[Drak]

Let me explain:

Film finishes like lacquer and shellac dry from the top down by air curing.

Oil-based finishes like Linseed oil, Tung Oil, Tru-Oil, all that kinda stuff, dries from the bottom up.

And when you combine that type of finish with an oily wood, it is a bad match.

There's so much oil in the wood itself that the finish can't start the curing process.

Oil-based finishes, as a rule, should not be used over oily woods.

Tru-Oil is a polymerized oil finish, which gives it an advantage in the curing process over the Linseed oils and Tung Oils,

but it's not a tremendous difference.

That's your problem, bad match between wood selection and finish selection.

A quick coat of shellac, which is an excellent barrier coat, would technically 'make things OK', as it will give some separation between the two.