buffing

[ahoiberg]

buffing question for y'all...

i've recently completed a piece that i finished with danish oil. i know danish oil in itself will not provide a sheen but can i buff the piece with white diamond/tripoli to increase the sheen on it?

secondly, can i buff some paste wax on top of the previous buff or will this dull out the previous buffing?

this will be my first real go at buffing.

thanks.

 

[john lucas]

depending on how satiny it is you may have to start with Tripoli before going to the white diamond. You can always go back so i would try the white diamond and if it doesn''t work the back up to tripoli. I use the Carnauba wax as my last step after the white diamond.

 

[Griesbach]

Andrew, John is right. Tripoli is more course than the white diamond and carnuba was is the final stage in the Beal Buffing system. However, that need not prevent you from using some other wax. Renaissance wax can be a good alternative.

 

[Aaron G+11]

Given enough coats, Watco and Waterlox will produce a gloss. The question is how many coats are you willing to put on?

 

[MichaelMouse]

You can buff the wood for sheen or the finish for gloss. If you have a high-solids finish, you get surface faster than low-solids like "Danish" oils, but if you've the time and the place to let multiple gummy coats cure, you can get where two coats of a wiping varnish or a seal and one coat of full-thickness finish would get you.

Don't have the name brand "system", but the abrasives are graded, as others noted, and you may stop at any level which produces the look you want. Caution on coarse abrasives and thin coats is that you can cut through them, and with shellac's low melting point, burn through. Make sure all those finishes are well-cured before you subject them to stress.

You can get standard rouge sticks for buffing darker woods or woods with irregularities like bark which might show white. You can play wax hardness, particle size and color on buffed wood, too. Lots of options.

 

[Donna Banfield]

I have used Urethane Oil (Woodcraft's) and Bush Oil for the majority of my turnings -- that is, bowls and hollow forms. I liked Urethane Oil because of the sheen it produced. It was slightly less shiny than what you would get using Waterlox, which just reminds me of a gymnasium floor. But shiny enough to invite that Oohh!

I always thought that Bush Oil just didn't achieve that same level of sheen when compared to Urethane Oil, until I used it on a piece of rock maple with lots of quilting. It was 4 coats of Bush Oil, built up over a 1 week period, then Beal buffed (tripoli, white diamong, carnuba) after letting it sit for a week. A very nice deep sheen, that people are going Oohh! over. It's at a show this weekend, and I don't have a photo. It's over 20" in diameter, and way too big for my photo booth set up. I'll try to take some photos at the show, and maybe post them.

 

[Jake Debski]

Two coats of Deft gloss, thinned approximately 50/50, and wiped back off after a minute or so after each coat. Allowed to harden over night, then buffed with tripoli, white diamond, and finished buffed with Renaissance Wax has become my current "favorite." The idea came from a post on this forum awhile back.

Be aware, sanding scratches stand out like Burma Shave signs when using this regimen.