# CA BLO finish over oily woods?



## limited60 (Mar 30, 2009)

I learned the hard way that a (Fairfield method) CA/BLO finish doesn't take well over oily woods.  I made a beautiful Blackwood pen with some Holly and Bloodwood inlays and spent the better part of 4 hours getting the finish to take.
It finally did, and looks great.

Questions:
1.  Will the finish remain on the pen or will it likely peel off?

2.  When dealing with oily woods, is a CA BLO finish the best option?  I am not a fan of a fristion polish, purely from a durability perspective.

3.  Will wiping it with acetone before the CA/BLO make the finish hold as long as it would hold on a non-oily wood?

I really enjoyed the aesthetic of the holly and bloodwood in the blackwood and want to continue with those combinations, but want to know a good way of finishing it.

Any help/advice/input is greatly appreciated.


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## airrat (Mar 30, 2009)

A method I have done is let the blank cool off ,  wipe it down with alchol.   Let that completely dry.

When doing the CA finish I do not use BLO (very rarely use BLO unless I want to darken the wood a little.).  I apply a couple coats of thin, then let the blank cool off again and go from there.  Again keeping the blank from heating up too much and letting the oil move around.

When sanding I do the same.  Keep from over heating the blank.


Hope this helps some.


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## limited60 (Mar 30, 2009)

airrat said:


> A method I have done is let the blank cool off , wipe it down with alchol. Let that completely dry.
> 
> When doing the CA finish I do not use BLO (very rarely use BLO unless I want to darken the wood a little.). I apply a couple coats of thin, then let the blank cool off again and go from there. Again keeping the blank from heating up too much and letting the oil move around.
> 
> ...


 
I'm clueless about the application of CA without BLO...
Since I'm using holly, I can't wet sand with CA.  If there is a way to apply CA without using the BLO and without wetsanding first, I'd love to hear the method.

Thanks.


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## leehljp (Mar 30, 2009)

Just do not wet sand. Also do not use BLO. I have made numerous ebony pens and other oily woods without a problem. I don't always wipe it with acetone before hand, but I do most of the time. My early pens here in Japan were mostly ebonies.

Dry sand. That is OK. I have one pen (click here)  that would not work with any kind of sanding on the wood, so I had to make it smooth from turning with a scraper only. The finish was directly over the turned wood. It works well! (I did sand the finish, just not the wood.)

One other hint - You don't post where you are from and this has something to do with this suggestion - temperature. After 4 years of making pens, it finally dawned on me how much fighting I do to get a good finish between late October and mid-March. I can and do get great finishes, but I have to fight with it for one to three hours per pen. The problem here is the temp. If the ambient temp of the CA, blank, room is below 70°, the CA becomes finicky. And humidity affects it some also.


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## limited60 (Mar 30, 2009)

leehljp said:


> Just do not wet sand. Also do not use BLO. I have made numerous ebony pens and other oily woods without a problem. I don't always wipe it with acetone before hand, but I do most of the time. My early pens here in Japan were mostly ebonies.
> 
> Dry sand. That is OK. I have one pen (click here) that would not work with any kind of sanding on the wood, so I had to make it smooth from turning with a scraper only. The finish was directly over the turned wood. It works well! (I did sand the finish, just not the wood.)
> 
> One other hint - You don't post where you are from and this has something to do with this suggestion - temperature. After 4 years of making pens, it finally dawned on me how much fighting I do to get a good finish between late October and mid-March. I can and do get great finishes, but I have to fight with it for one to three hours per pen. The problem here is the temp. If the ambient temp of the CA, blank, room is below 70°, the CA becomes finicky. And humidity affects it some also.


 

Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

That pen is beautiful.
Mind PM'ing me with some information about the materials? Technique?
I'm a newbie, but a curious one.


Thanks.


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## leehljp (Mar 31, 2009)

limited60 said:


> Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
> 
> That pen is beautiful.
> Mind PM'ing me with some information about the materials? Technique?
> ...



I will PM you in a couple of days. I am on the road now and on a very slow connection. Will be back home with by Thursday your time.


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## limited60 (Mar 31, 2009)

leehljp said:


> I will PM you in a couple of days. I am on the road now and on a very slow connection. Will be back home with by Thursday your time.


 
Thank you.


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## Munsterlander (Mar 31, 2009)

Agree with Hank - skip the BLO.  Russ can probably pull it off, but I never could.  With straight CA I've had no problem on oily woods (ebony, cocobolo, BOW).  I don't wipe down with acetone or DNA, but I do clean with accelerant before applying the CA.  If you do a search on "CA finish the new way" (I think that's what it was called) you'll see some really useful discussion on it.  I do 10-12 coats of thin, 2 or 3 drops per coat, only go back and forth once or twice with thin strip of paper towel, puff of accelerant, next coat.  MM through 12000 and 2 or 3 applications of a plastic polish.  

Incidentally, it was a mun ebony pen that finally forced me to give up on friction polish (I doubt I will ever use it again) and my seemingly endless attempts at CA/BLO - could not get a finish to stay on to save my life.  Absolutely no problem with "new" method (for me) described above - I was so happy with it I wound up refinishing every pen I had on hand over Christmas...


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