Cocobolo finish ??

[avbill]

Just finish sanding a cocobolo pen and looking at lacquer finish for the wood. I know the cocobolo is oily Will the lacquer and the oily wood create problem?

Thanks for the answers


PS Im still experimenting with CA and can not reproduce the same finish until then CA fiish is out!

 

[Brandon25]

my buddy, who works a lot with cocobolo, just finished telling me today his favorite is just to sand it smooth then buff it.

 

[mrcook4570]

his favorite is just to sand it smooth then buff it.

Which is great for most turnings. However, pens and other items that will be handled frequently need a finish to protect the wood. Otherwise, you end up with a 'nice patina' (aka dirty wood).

 

[VisExp]

Bill, I've not had a problem applying lacquer directly on freshly sanded Cocobolo. I have had problems applying poly to it though. The poly never seemed to dry.

 

[les-smith]

Les Elm talks about sealing oil woods in his tutorial on using Minwax poly.

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2008/minwaxfinish.pdf

He says,

"One problem I have ran into is getting the finish to dry when using oily woods. The Poly will never dry on oily wood without sealing in the oil. I have had success wiping on 4 to 6 coats of French Polish (Padding Lacquer) which dries in a few minuets between applications. Then I rub down the length of the blank with super fine steel wool and wipe blank down with a tack cloth prior to apply the Poly."​

You might contact him and get his opinion on lacquer & polyurethane because it looks like he does a lot of it.​

 

[Ligget]

I use CA on Cocobolo, however, Enduro looks good on it too but have yet to try lacquer! This is a CA finish on Cocobolo.

 

[rherrell]

Lacquer is a great finish. Not a problem to put it on Cocobolo.

 

[Fred]

Using CA as a finish on Cocobolo is a darned good way to go. The CA reacts with the oils in the wood and the finish is superb as is displayed by the pen Ligget has posted.

Great job on your pen Mark, excellent finish work. :biggrin:

 

[NewLondon88]

I've had trouble with finishes on cocobolo, too. They say shellac will stick to anything, so
Les' mention of padding finish or french polish makes sense.

But the oil CAN interfere with shellac, too .. so I'd wait till the last second, wipe
as much oil off as you can using mineral spirits, then as soon as it dries, try the shellac
as a barrier coat. If the shellac bonds to the wood, you're golden. You should be able
to use most any finish after that.

I've got a cocobolo candle holder I'm finishing for the 4th time this afternoon.
I tried the NC lacquer and it looked great. Once handled, it peeled off on one little spot..
and then I peeled the whole thing. I'd already tried the poly after mineral spirits, but
the results were fine over MOST of the turning.

So I hit it with the Zinsser french polish after the mineral spirits wipe.
So far, so good..