How long should BLO sit before covering w/finish?

[Dan Mitchell]

Per my earlier post, I have a couple end table of walnut & hard maple I plan to apply BLO to to enhance the grain, then coat with polyurethane. How long should the BLO sit before applying the finish? Flexner says a week or more in his book, but I have heard less. Opinions?

TIA

Dan

[Henry Ambrose]

As I posted in your other thread on this project -- try it and see.

Frankly, I'm a bit nervous about water based poly over BLO. (you did state water based poly in the other thread) But I don't know that for a fact.

While you're testing, try the poly by itself to see what it looks like.

I'm pretty much against mixing materials if I'm not sure of compatibility and results. If it was my project I'd use enough coats of one high quality finish applied with care to get a great looking finish.

Mini rant:
Mixing finishes without some very good reason and maybe even a bit of science thrown in seems like superstition or voodoo to me. And its often asking for trouble. You'd be way better off selecting a great finish and using it than going through multiple materials and extra steps. Factory finishes are done in many steps most to hide the less than perfect wood they're covering up. In production you can run a whole bunch of pieces through the finishing department way cheaper than you can use perfect wood and slow old style hand finishing. Folks here seem to be making projects that are intended to be better than what can be bought in a mass market furniture store. So don't take your finishing lessons from a factory.

[Dan Mitchell]

Henry - In the other thread, you suggested "real oil varnish". Can you give me an exact make & model?

Dan

[Henry Ambrose]

Henry - In the other thread, you suggested "real oil varnish". Can you give me an exact make & model?

Dan


I'd go with what J. Scott Holmes wrote in the related thread:

"Waterlox Original and Behlen's Rockhard Tabletop........."

I don't think you can go wrong with these. Give them plenty of time to dry between coats. Lightly sand between coats if you have dust cooties in the finish. I always seem to have some specky things that I want gone.

I often sand with wet/dry paper wet with finish to make some "sanding mud" to help fill the pores. I use a block of foam rubber wrapped in the wet/dry paper. Gently wipe the "sanding mud" off across the grain, then let dry completely. Don't spend as much time inside the apron or inside the legs as you do on the top visible surfaces. Keep at the top until its perfect or you'll curse it every time you use it.

There is a thread here recently that describes a "wipe on" method for Waterlox. That technique will work to give a nice job.

This is a lot of work (it'd be a lot faster to give it two coats of spray can poly) but if you keep at it you will not regret your end result.