tung oil or shellac

[marcros]

I am making a box from london plane, which is very light in colour and very figured. The lid is to be veneered, and looks like bubinga (it was a mixed box of offcut veneers).

I am under pressure to have it finished pretty soon because it needs to be in the USA by the end of next month. I would like it to be glossy and shiny, so had wondered about either tung oil or shellac as a finish. The London Plane is almost white in colour- is tung likely to yellow it badly, and will it take forever to dry? i have not used it before.

I can mix up some shellac to try it as a finish which may be the quicker option, possibly with wax on top

any thoughts?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I only used tung once - and it took forever to dry.

 

[deema]

Tung needs overnight to dry, wipe on leave for 10 mins and you must wipe off the excess. Forms a lovely surface and is really nice when waxed. It does have a yellow / orange tinge so I would test on a piece of scrap first.

Shellac as you know dries in minutes, but if you don't keep the rubber moving or put too many Coates on at one time you can end up with what I call a stop mark. When this occurs, the only remedy I've found is to strip it all off and start again.

Of the two, Tung will IMO give you the easiest and least risky finish, but it will take c4 days (3 Coates and the following day wax) to finish.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I used it on pine and it wasn't dry four days later.

 

[Glynne]

I've used tung oil a lot on turnings, cheese boards etc. as its food safe and resistant to moisture (so easy to wipe down). I've found that it can take several days to cure between coats even when applied properly with the excess wiped off after a couple of minutes. This may be down to temperature but I'm always cautious to leave the wood for at least a week after the final coat. It does give a nice sheen but I wouldn't call it "shiny & glossy".
Shellac can obviously give you a high gloss finish but won't be as resilient to being handled.
The other option is to use a sanding sealer and then wax over the top. This is the finish I used for my hall / console table that gets battered by the grandkids.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/lacewood-brown-oak-hall-table-t64673.html?hilit= Hall

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've been wary of SS as a finish since someone here said (logically, I thought) why would you choose to use as a finish something that is purpose made to be scratched?

 

[sunnybob]

I'm very pleased with wipe on poly. Needs about 12 hours between wiped on coats, and then a day for final hardening, but this box only had three coats and the top shines like glass.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I don't like tung oil on delicately coloured blonde woods for exactly the reason you mention....the yellowish tinge. it reminds me of nicotine stains in pubs in the old days! Lacewood is a beautifully delicate and fine grained piece and personally I think tung oil would ruin it so it wouldn't be my choice.

Having recently watched how Nick Arnull finishes his platters with a deep lustre that doesn't look plastic, I've been recently experimenting with acrylic lacquer finishes. I can thoroughly recommend the following process for a seriously deep lustre where you can see your face in the finish but where there is little if any colour change other than the usual darkening from the wetting when the grain pops out. As follows:

First coat cellulose sanding sealer. Denib after dry. 2nd coat SS and denib again. First coat of spray on Chestnut acrylic laquer and leave to dry. DONT over coat, little is all you need and it must be dry before you denib. At least an hour if not 2. Denib with 0000 wire wool NOT nyweb or similar. Re spray again a sparing coat of the acrylic, what you want to avoid is drips obviously but even less than that, any orange peel effect from over coating. Let that dry... 1-2 hours and then denib again with wire wool. Final coat just before bed time and leave overnight to really dry good n proper. Next day, get some burnishing cream, chestnut or other and get a tack cloth and gently but firmly rub the burnishing cream into the lacquer with the grain. The cream contains very fine abrasives and will form a dry white powdery residue on the surface. You'll think you've ruined it but you haven't. Take a fresh cloth and polish vigorously and you simply wont believe the lustre it brings up. It's off the chart and yet it doesn't look like cheap plastic, it looks much more like expensive French polish. Really brilliant technique and apparently Nick Arnull trained as an artist so he really knows his finishes. Time consuming I accept but only over the course of a day in small bursts and the end product is worth it I promise you.

 

[CHJ]

I see Bob has beaten me to it with his post, but I think my thoughts reinforce what he has said so will post anyway.
The timescale you are committing yourself to is leaving you very vulnerable as regards achieving the finish you have in mind.

Tung Oil I would be very wary with if you have not previously used it with the wood combinations, the name tends to be very generic and there is a considerable difference between brands as to Pure, With Driers, Pre Polymerised etc.

Shellac will give you the depth of gloss when applied correctly and can be carefully burnished, but if you have never done it before you need to practice on spare wood.

Sanding sealer, Cellulose or Acrylic will not colour the wood greatly above what you will see if you wet it or wipe it with alcohol and can be burnished to a shine with Burnishing Cream by hand.

Cellulose being the quickest to dry, Acrylic takes a few minutes longer being water based to touch dry and several hours to be robust but is a little more robust when fully cured.

Both will form a reasonably hard shell that can be abraded/buffed to a high gloss or coated with a high gloss lacquer, but again the latter is something you need to practice with before applying to a priority project if you have not used it before.

 

[marcros]

Thanks all.

i have mixed up some shellac to have an experiment with. Of all the products mentioned, it is all that i have at home, so was my original thought. I am wary of the tung option, given the feedback. I do plan to give some a try, but not probably on this light timber.

The box is not yet glued- waiting on glue to arrive, so nothing is delaying me yet. If I dont like the shellac finish, i will get some sanding sealer and give that a go next. I have brushed shellac before, so that application doesnt worry me. If the garnet is not as deep/rich in colour as I want, I may oil the bubinga first and try that. I have some boiled linseed, possibly some truoil varnish too for this.

it is a jewellery box, so hopefully should spend most of its time sat on a dressing table rather than getting knocked about being moved.

 

[Alexam]

Two or three coats of Truoil will do the job.

 

[marcros]

I would normally use that as a default Alex, but for this snow white London Plane. The (super?) blonde shellac is perfect on this and retains the colour. The darker shellac puts a slight golden tone to it, and if oil was anything like the same colour, it would spoil the effect. I tried the tru-oil on the bubinga under both garnet and blonde shellac, although for some reason not just the tru oil alone. i suspect that I will wet sand the oil in to fill the pores a bit and brush on the shellac. hopefully the glue will arrive tomorrow, but I have nothing other than polyeurethane, and prefer liquid hide (or real hide) for veneering with.

do you grain fill with the tru-oil- i did on some walnut and it worked well.