# "Ancient Bog Wood" Natural Finish?



## rodtod11 (Jul 21, 2015)

I'm curious if any of you have tried simply sanding your blank and then leave it like that?  I have a piece of "Ancient Bog Wood" as Rockler calls it. It looks very nice and I have sanded it down to 800 grit.  It looks nice and I kind of wanted a matte natural wood finish. I have finished my pens in CA , both Medium and light with great results, but always a shiny finish. I've tried the wax and really didnt like that. Have you any natural wood without a finish coat on them?  How did it hold up?
Thanks!


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## CREID (Jul 21, 2015)

rodtod11 said:


> I'm curious if any of you have tried simply sanding your blank and then leave it like that?  I have a piece of "Ancient Bog Wood" as Rockler calls it. It looks very nice and I have sanded it down to 800 grit.  It looks nice and I kind of wanted a matte natural wood finish. I have finished my pens in CA , both Medium and light with great results, but always a shiny finish. I've tried the wax and really didnt like that. Have you any natural wood without a finish coat on them?  How did it hold up?
> Thanks!


 I would think without any finish at all, the oils from your skin would eventually darken the wood.
Curt


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## rodtod11 (Jul 21, 2015)

Yea, Curt, that is a consideration. Any ideas other than the usual CA or wax finish?


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## magpens (Jul 21, 2015)

You can always do your usual CA finish and then make it "matte" using very fine steel wool .... grade 0000 is the finest.  I have done this on a burl pen and was happy with the result.


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## CREID (Jul 22, 2015)

You might try a thinned down version of sanding sealer, on a test blank of course.
Curt


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## VotTak (Jul 22, 2015)

Or you can try Dan's approach, he uses Pen's Plus. 
You can slightly change his approach and use couple layers of CA at the end, try you might like it. Another approach is to just use walnut oil in between sanding, you might still see uneven structure, keep it and add 1-2 thin layers of CA. This way you will protect wood(to degree) and still see it's structure. And one more approach... stabilize it, sand it and again 1-2 layer of thin CA. 
If you finish it with a lot of layers of CA you will see just black color stick with no wood structure(it is still not bad but seeing that nice wood grains without cover is better to my taste). Just experiment, and you might come up with something very cool.


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## Mortalis (Jul 22, 2015)

Try OB's shine juice. You can apply it and let it soak and dry to a matte finish or you can friction polliish it to any desired level of shine you want. 

1 part shellac
1 part BLO
1 part alcohol

I find it tends to darken lighter woods but the Bog Oak would look real nice.


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## walshjp17 (Jul 22, 2015)

Just use Pens Plus or a Walnut oil with a coat of beeswax or RenWax afterward.


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## mikedealer (Jul 22, 2015)

BLO and CA Finish provides a matte-"ish" finish usually for me, and can be finished with steel wool at the end for a even finish


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## RedBeard (Jul 27, 2015)

I've used GF Woodturner's Finish on bog oak and while it wasn't au natural, it did have the look of a burnished wood with flecks of shiny where the grain was "open".


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## longbeard (Jul 27, 2015)

Not the best pic. Finished with Pens Plus







Harry


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