buffing Tru-Oil

tonyturley

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Any suggestions on buffing Tru-Oil once it is cured? I don't have a power buffer or buffing wheel, and I would be leery about melting through the finish, anyway. I bought a kit last year that has the Tru-Oil polishing compound. Is that any good? I'm not looking for a mirror finish, just smooth and without streaks.
 
I've found that the sheen on a tru oil finish depends a bit on how many coats you put on - more coats will tend to lead to a glossier finish regardless of the buffing.

What I usually do is buff it by hand with a white scotchbrite pad that has some paste wax (Johnson's etc) on it. Then let it dry for a good half hour and buff with a plain cotton cloth. This gives a nice warm glowing shine that's somewhere between satin and semigloss depending on the wood prep and number of coats.
 
This could be way out of date. Before about 1995, Tru-oil polish was the best around for a high gloss. I ordered a carton of it in 1996 and they had added a grit to it. I called Birchwood-Casey to complain and was told that the formula was changed because shiney gunstocks had fallen out of favor. I would certainly use it on a sample piece before using it on an instrument, though more coats could be used to restore the shine in any case.

You could use 1000 grit wet to knock back any dust particles and then hand buff with auto polish. I buy flannel remnants at a fabric store for hand buffing.
 
You don't need a buffing wheel unless you want 'out of this world' gloss. Then your ukulele may double up as a telescope.
Liberon do a burnishing cream. It's obviously some sort of rottenstone/tripoli powder in a carrier, petroleum based. You can buy other types that are water based. They all do a similar job but you should always try them on a test piece to make sure they aren't going to strip the finish. If you go through the grits ending with 1200 or 1500 and finish with the burnishing cream it will get pretty glossy and I mean a pretty deep gloss too. I've done it many times. It may not be to the level of much harder finishes or those that have been machine buffed but believe me it's glossy enough for most people. Of course you need to put enough finish on to allow you to go through the grits. If you don't remove all the scratches from the previous grit you won't get great results. Prematurely jumping to the next grit is a common beginners mistake. Try 800G as a starting paper. If it's not leveling you may have to go down to 600G. If everything has been done correctly you shouldn't need to go down to anything coarser.
Tru oil isn't my usual finish but I can get all the coats on in just over one day and get it to full gloss the next day, so 3 days. I do have a drying cabinet though.
If you can finish it like jupiteruke suggests then that is by far the best solution. Saves a lot of silly work. I've not quite managed to finish it 'from the cloth' to my satisfaction but I wish that I could. I can do that with French polish though.
 
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this is tru oil straight off the cloth, minimal prep on wood sanded to 400, least shiny was sealed with shellac first, side on shows penetration, applied as per previous post in this thread.
have fun and there is no grit in the tru oil Ive used.
 
Thanks for all the replies, and especially the pdf. I did pore fill the Black Walnut body with Z-Poxy first, and the entire body, including the Cedar top, got 4 thin coats of shellac, carefully buffing with grey Scotchbrite between coats. Then I did 4 thin coats of Tru-Oil. It was a 3 day process (after the pore fill was all scraped and sanded smooth), finishing on the 3rd morning, and setting everything aside to cure. I'm not necessarily looking for a glossy shine, but I do want the instrument to be smooth to the touch.
 
If it is not smooth sounds like you had too much tru oil on there. Do you use a pad like french polish or did you use a brush? Use a pad spread it out as thin as you can then wipe off any excess. I have never had streaks or ridges using pad application of truoil whether pore filled with Zpoxy or not.
 
If it is not smooth sounds like you had too much tru oil on there. Do you use a pad like french polish or did you use a brush? Use a pad spread it out as thin as you can then wipe off any excess. I have never had streaks or ridges using pad application of truoil whether pore filled with Zpoxy or not.
I used a munica made from a clean square of linen wrapped around a cotton ball, held tightly by a rubber band. I did indeed use thin coats, but I did no wiping after the coats were laid. The pore-filled Black Walnut turned out very well, but I had more trouble with the Western Red Cedar.
 
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