Buffing Tru Oil

[hawthorn1213]

Hey,

Quick question about buffing tru oil - I have let 16 coats (cut with mineral spirits when applied) dry for three weeks. I went to start lighting hand buffing with stewmac buffing compound and everything was going fine until I switched from medium to fine. After a few minutes of buffing with the fine compound the finish started to dull.

Any idea what's going wrong? I have a hard time believing I'm burning through by only using my hand.

Thanks in advance.

[sunburst]

I don't know what's going on, but I get good results hand rubbing TO with Novus 2 polish.

[justrythym]

This happens to be something I have experience with, gunstocks and tru-oil. If your using dye or stain, it must be completely dry and all residue removed before applying tru-oil. After the dye or stain is dry and clean. I lightly go over with 0000 steel wool. Then I thin the tru-oil with naptha to just water like consistency. The naptha dries very quickly and helps the process. Put very thin coats on with a soft saturated cloth, but not dripping. Smooth even strokes. If your wood is clean with no residue, it will start drying immediately. If it’s still tacky after 30 min. Wash your wood down with naptha, let dry and start Tru-oil again. After you learn this, you can do it without sanding between coats. I will probably put around 10 coats on an average gunstock depending on how thick you want it. Then when bone dry, lightly go over with 0000 steel wool and buff with a soft rag. It will get like glass. After a few days you can rub out with swirl mark remover or wax with detail spray. Note: when your wood is right, using this method you can put a coat on about every 20 -30 min. Hope this helps