Finishing Koa

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Grizzlyss

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I am doing a European pen in curly Koa, and I am having a problem with the CA finish on it. It sucks up all the CA I put on it and as soon as you touch sand paper to it you get koa sanding dust, not CA dust. I am doing the sandpaper with CA to seal the wood then I put on a dozen coats of thin CA, then 2 or 3 thick coats with the med CA, and after drying it still acts like it has nothing on it. The finish has darkened slightly from putting the CA on, but that is it. Can Koa be finsihed with CA? Am I doing something wrong, or do I need to be doing something else? This is my first time using Koa, but I have put a CA finish on Cocobolo, Zebra wood, Purpleheart, Tasmanian Rose Myrtle, so I think I have the basics down, so what am I doing wrong with the Koa? Please help, all suggestions welcome.

Sheldon
 
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Sheldon, I had the same thing happen last week. I just kept putting thin CA on until it started to build up. Took 8 or 9 coats of thin before it stopped soaking in. then a few more to get a good covering that was uniform. All told I must have had 15 coats of thin then a couple of thick CA on that pen. It polished up nice when all was said and done but I was thinking I was finishing a sponge during the process. I'm not sure if its Koa in general of If I just had a porous blank but that thing really ate the CA. Ive got about a half dozen more KOA blanks and will make sure I have plenty of CA on hand when I turn them.
 
Interesting; I've had my better successes using CA with Curly Koa. I use Walnut oil first, drink that in and dry it, then seal with thin CA, then start layering it up. It takes a number of coats, but less than cocobolo from my experience.

Gary
 
Koa is a tricky wood. Some is really heavy and dense and finishes fine with a couple coats of CA, and then some boards are light and suck up CA like you won't believe. I have done a lot of Koa flat work and oil is the finish of choice with a poly finish. For pens I use a sanding sealer (keep putting coats it on until it stops sucking) let dry then sand to 1200 MM and then a noral CA finish. You can seal the blank with several coats of CA but it takes longer (and a lot of CA). Also, by using the sanding sealer I can go heavy without having to worry about the ridges that CA makes. Only down side is you have to wait til the sanding sealer dries.
 
Hi Sheldon,

I recently turned a few curly Koa's. I had a similar problem after getting it ready for finish.

I found if I used Deft spray lacquer I was much more successful.

IMG_8187.jpg


I built up two coats and then used a plastic polish, no MM at all, it worked well. I let the blanks sit for about 4 days before I polished them.

Sold them right out of the case to the first person who saw them...[;)]
 
The blank soaking up the CA for me would be a good thing. It will insure a solid piece of wood. I would keep soaking until it will absorb no more. You could start with medium or thicker CA which does not absorb into the wood so easily if you are looking to save your CA.
 
I haven't done any koa yet but I've seen instructions that say to put on thin ca first and then follow immediately with medium or med-thick, the thin will draw the thicker into the wood by capillary action.
 
Thank you everyone for all your suggestions and experience. So far what I have found to work about the best is a thin CA sanding sealer (while sanding) then as soon as it is dry start putting on the med CA. This time it only seemed to take about 10 coats. LOL. But it did biuld up quicker this time, next time I'll try an oil first or some sort of other sanding sealer. Thanks again eveyone.

Sheldon
 
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