I'm not sure that I remember this correctly, BUT, I thought what Ron Drums was saying was that if you have an oily wood, like cocobolo, the oils in the wood will hamper the curing process of the sanding sealer.  Some people, I think Recon it was, tried to seal a piece of oily wood and the sealer was still "wet" or "tacky" about 4 days later.  Yikes!

If this isn't what you were talking about then please correct me.

Dan

it probably my febmile mind  I remember what he had said to recon youre right but I was thinking in another post but maybe just a dangerous mind at work

Doug,
My question was how can I stop the oil coming back so fast I tried a experiment on the fingers I used Acetone, Mineral Spirits, DNA before using Sanding sealer.

I did mess up I forgot which one I put on what fingers so experiment was a bust.

In this way do you just use a thinned down laquer as a sealer ?
will it stop oil from coming back & ruining the finish

Chuck

There are two "basic" types of sanding sealer, home-made and store bought. Most sanding sealers are just a thinned down version of your finish. Store bought sanding sealers have other ingredients that may contain "flatting" agents which will produce a satin finish. For oil based finishes, mineral spirits or turpentine are used as the thinning agents.  So if you really “Need” sanding sealer, just thin down your finish.

The idea of using a thinned down finish is for the finish to flow more evenly not deeper. Oil molecules to do not soak into the wood deeper just because there is more mineral spirits in the mixture. But if there is less oil there is not "enough" to soak deep into the wood.

When you sand the dried sealer you are opening the pores of the wood just slightly so the next layer of oil will “almost sit on top” and the finish will flow more even and produce an more even appearance. This is desirable for something like a cherry or pine table top because we want an even color and these woods have a tendency to look blotchy on a wide surfaces. (Also, most table tops have a satin finish)

But as turners, we enjoy the look of an highly figured wood, so why hide it with a sanding sealer?

In Chuck’s case with ebony, it’s a little different story. Ebony is so dense that oil does not penetrate in to the wood. An oil finish needs to penetrate to dry properly, it if sits on top of the wood all you get is a gooey mess. As I mentioned in Chuck’s thread try this experiment. Place a lima bean drop of an oil finish onto a freshly sanded piece of wood and another drop of an oil finish onto a piece of glass. Come back in an hour or two and take a look at the two drops. Now let them sit for a day and take a look again. Ebony is so dense that it is almost like glass when it come to absorbing an oil finish.

When it comes to finishing ebony, I prefer no finish. But if you “gotta have” a finish, you need to use one that dries on the top of the wood, like shellac or lacquer.

Give me a day or two to catch up and I’ll write up how to “POP” the grain. Half of what you need to know is already in this post.

ddt frederick holsclaw wrote on Oct 15^th, 2007 at 7:07pm:


Spit wash??? what's in your coffee.

coffe
one part grounds
one part whater
six parts suger
2 parts cream = coffe

So called sanding sealers contain sterates, much like talc.  These fillers are what cause the muddying of the wood's surface.  Use a thinned material as an initial sealer to keep the CA from soaking into the wood and causing the stain/scar.
Rev. Doug Miller