Applying tung oil on the lathe?

[Aaron Wingert]

I'm making a turkey call from some spectacular claro walnut and am wanting to use tung oil to really show off the grain (as opposed to my normal turkey call finish, waterlox). I'm going for a classic oil finish look, like on a fine gun stock.

What's the best way to apply it? Burn it in on the lathe using a paper towel? How many coats? Can I/should I topcoat with beeswax?

I sure appreciate any advice!

[John Keeton]

Aaron, from my flatwork experience, I don't think you will see any significant difference in the color using the tung oil vs. Waterlox. There may be a difference in sheen.

I try to apply as much finish on the lathe as possible, but I don't use tung oil. I apply BLO (little darker) and using a little shellac on the same piece of towel, I turn the speed up and burn it in. Makes a very nice finish.

Of course, I have very limited experience here, so others may be more helpful.

[Dennis Ford]

I use tung oil often. The stuff I got is pretty thick and I thin it with 3 parts mineral spirits, 1 part tung oil. It needs to dry between coats, the label recommends three days but it really depends on ambient temperature. Several coats are better. Let the last coat dry throughly (1 week?) and then buff for some shine. I usually reverse my turnings to do the bottom, take it off the lathe for final sanding and then finish.

[Aaron Wingert]

Thanks guys. John, I agree that tung oil and waterlox won't be too different color-wise. It is just the thick glossy shine that I'm trying to avoid. Waterlox is just polymerized tung oil as far as I know.

Just wasn't sure if applying tung on the lathe sort of like friction polish with a folded paper towel is a decent method. My thought was that friction and heat might dry it quick???

Dennis' comments about drying time kind of spook me because unfortunately I don't have time to wait on three or four coats to dry for a couple days each on this particular project. That's because I'm a procrastinator.....But that's a whole other thread!

[Al Wasser]

If you want the gun stock look go to wally world and get some Tru Oil.

[Brian Greb]

You can speed the drying time of tung oil by useing japan dryer. This plus friction should speed up your drying time. I use japan dryer mixed in tung oil on my flat work and the tung oil drys in 2-8 hours depending on how much dryer I add. Hope that helps.

[Rich Aldrich]

You could get some Birchwood Casey Tru Oil gun stock finish. Then you actually have the same finish as many gunstocks. I made a gun stock for my 7mm Mag out of Claro walnut when the summer of 1980 between my senior year of high school and college. My first finish was tung oil. I later removed the tung oil and applied Tru oil. I really like the finish.

[Charlie Reals]

One of the best and most durable stock finishes is one I have been using for years. Equal parts blo,turpentine and beeswax. It will give you the low sheen hand rubbed effect you are looking for. This was developed many years ago by a USMC gunney . Personally, I wouldn't use anything else as this is a simple finish to reapply at will and it is durable.
just my 2c's

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I'm making a turkey call from some spectacular claro walnut and am wanting to use tung oil to really show off the grain (as opposed to my normal turkey call finish, waterlox). I'm going for a classic oil finish look, like on a fine gun stock.

What's the best way to apply it? Burn it in on the lathe using a paper towel? How many coats? Can I/should I topcoat with beeswax?

I sure appreciate any advice!

Aaron if you want to use tung oil, (I use it a lot) do exactly as the instructions tell you to do, (there's a good reason they tell you, they do know what works :))

I use polymerized tung oil, (it sets faster than the normal pure tung oil) it will get harder and can be more glossy if you like that (can be polished)

The pure polymerized tung oil reacts with oxygen to form long polymer chains, to do this, the temp has to be high enough and it takes time.

If the temp is too cool the polymerization will not happen, and if you add a coat on top before the previous coat has finished polymerizing, then you prevent the oxygen to continue to be able to react with your first coat, and you will have a mess, of course than the tung gets blamed :rolleyes:

I usually put just one coat per day, you could do two, but I rather play it safe, I'm in no hurry to screw it up.

[David DeCristoforo]

"... apply BLO (little darker) and using a little shellac on the same piece of towel..."

Tage Frid loved this finish. He called it "Frid's fast fine finish" AKA "The 4F". He would rag on the oil then brush on shellac while the oil was still wet and then burnish it out with fine steel wool. I used it a few times and I was amazed at how nice a finish it produced. Not a "real" french polish but "similar" in appearance with about a tenth of the work. I can see how this would be spectacular applied on a lathe where you can really burn in the shellac.

[Scott Holmes]

Waterlox is far from polymerized tung oil. It is varnish made from phenolic resins and tung oil.

No tung oil left in it, no resin left in it. When it was cooked it became VARNISH.

Think flour, yeast, water, etc. after cooking it is bread.

[Aaron Wingert]

Thanks everybody for the informative responses. I'm glad to hear I didn't screw up and use tung oil the way I had planned on, as it wouldn't have dried in time for this project to be completed. Sooooo, I went with waterlox and am going to steel wool the final coat and apply a coat of wax.

Tru Oil....Going to have to get a bottle of that and give it a try for future turkey calls. Thanks for that suggestion!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks everybody for the informative responses. I'm glad to hear I didn't screw up and use tung oil the way I had planned on, as it wouldn't have dried in time for this project to be completed. Sooooo, I went with waterlox and am going to steel wool the final coat and apply a coat of wax.

Tru Oil....Going to have to get a bottle of that and give it a try for future turkey calls. Thanks for that suggestion!

Did you read the product info and application of Waterlox ???

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