Advice required please

[Alan Morrison]

I was given a number of old bowling bowls to make some pens from, and I have started cutting out blanks. Obviously I will need a new bandsaw blade when finished.
The Lignum vitae is very waxy/oily.
I would appreciate advice on finishing this type of timber.
Many thanks
Alan

 

[egnald]

I've used Hut Crystal Coat (shellac and Carnauba wax friction polish) on mine and was happy with how they turned out. - Dave

 

[jttheclockman]

My advice is to treat it like any other wood blank. Yes it is an oily wood. I know whenever I use oily woods such as rosewoods I just dip in Danish oil and then when dry I wet sand it to a polished look. But no reason you could not apply lacquer, poly, or CA over for a finish too. here is a method used some time ago by a member here.

https://www.penturners.org/threads/finishing-lignum-vitae-in-its-own-resin.21715/

 

[dogcatcher]

https://www.penturners.org/threads/finishing-lignum-vitae-in-its-own-resin.21715/

 

[Alan Morrison]

https://www.penturners.org/threads/finishing-lignum-vitae-in-its-own-resin.21715/

Thanks for the link and also to John @jttheclockman . Interesting thread.
I followed up that link and found this from the same contributor.


Quite a while ago, I experimented with http://www.penturners.org/forum/f28/finishing-lignum-vitae-its-own-resin-21715/. The results initially looked promising, but the shine didn't hold up over time. I've since reverted to a CA finish. I just wipe the blank down with CA accelerator prior to putting on the first coat. That strips the oil from the wood surface, giving the glue something to bond to.

 

[Alan Morrison]

I've used Hut Crystal Coat (shellac and Carnauba wax friction polish) on mine and was happy with how they turned out. - Dave

Thanks David.
Did you treat the sanded blank with anything to remove the oily surface?

 

[egnald]

Thanks David.
Did you treat the sanded blank with anything to remove the oily surface?

I almost always wipe/clean any sanding dust and surface oil from my blanks before finishing with denatured alcohol, so I probably did wipe them down with that first. Here are pictures of some. - Dave