Tried and true oil varnish

[ndy9691]

Hello everyone,

I picked up a pint of "Tried and True" oil varnish from my local woodcraft store. It boasts that it is a all natural linseed oil varnish, which sounded good to me.

Also the description of the finish is more of a semi-gloss, with french polish or tru-oil will the finish get glossy?

Thanks Dale

[David Newton]

If the varnish has a flattener added it will never come up to gloss.
It is hard enough to get a gloss varnish to polish up. You'll have to live with the surface the varnish is designed for.
You can get a gloss with french polished shellac or tru-oil, neither has a flattener added.

[mandomel]

Any other experiences with this particular varnish? Anyone have any experience with either a sealer coat of shellac underneath this varnish or a topcoat of french polish to give it more of a gloss? I have a mando I'm about to finish. Having used nitro in the past, I'd like to see what an oil varnish will do, tonally, but I don't know how it will react to shellac or aniline dyes.

[Charles E.]

I would test it on some scrap wood first.

Here is a link that might help......

http://woodworkstuff.net/tommyj01.html

[Austin Clark]

Any other experiences with this particular varnish? Anyone have any experience with either a sealer coat of shellac underneath this varnish or a topcoat of french polish to give it more of a gloss? I have a mando I'm about to finish. Having used nitro in the past, I'd like to see what an oil varnish will do, tonally, but I don't know how it will react to shellac or aniline dyes.

I have used this on furniture. It does not build a finish like nitro or an oil varnish I'd typically use on an instrument. Also, it takes weeks to fully dry. It's more like TruOil.

[Matt Harris]

I haven't used Tried & True Oil, but it appears to be a boiled linseed oil based product, same as Tru Oil. You can definitely build up to a glossy finish with Tru Oil, but it takes time and is probably not the ideal way to get that sort of finish. I've done it twice, and don't plan on doing it again. It requires many thin coats, and witness lines can be a problem. It's a fairly time consuming process.

This finish is Tru Oil over z-poxy finishing resin (as a pore filler):

[dschonbrun]

French polish takes time to do right.

[kjbllc]

you can try joe robson, he used to make the stuff before he sold the rights. he can be http://www.violinvarnish.com/
he is a really nice guy and an expert on violin varnish, if he has the time he may answer your questions.

[Jim Hilburn]

If you plan to use Joe Robson's varnish you better have a lot of patience or a really good ultraviolet setup.

[kjbllc]

I was only suggesting that he give him a call about the tried and true, not use violin varnish, which I probably would not use on a mando.