dust from pores in finish

[Andy Maldoror]

i ebonized oak with fiebing's leather dye.
rubbed it down with scotch brite and thoroughly sprayed with air.
put on a coat of arm-r-seal oil/urethane mix and dried overnight.
rubbed again with scotch brite and very thoroughly blew out.
the second coat of oil is showing a lot of particles.
what did i do wrong?
what can i do to correct this?
thanks
andy

[John TenEyck]

If you thoroughly cleaned the surfaces after sanding only to find particles in the wet finish then I would say they didn't come from the wood but, rather, your application device, the finish itself, or the air. If you applied it by rag, maybe your rag shed some particles or had dust in it. If you've been dipping your rag into the can maybe you contaminated the finish with dust along the way. And since you blew off the surface to clean it maybe the dust was in the air and settled onto the wet surface after you put the finish on. Actually, this would be my first guess based on your posting.

[Scott Holmes]

General's Oil & Urethane finish is pooly named when it comes to accuracy as to what is in the can. It is a thinned oil-based varnish the has been thinned to wipe-on varnish consistancy. It is not an oil/varnsih blend.

According to the MSDS on the product it has somewhere between 40% and 80% thinner up to 70% can be mineral spirits.
Now strictly from a profit point of view; I would guess it's closer to the 80% thinner than the 40%...

[John TenEyck]

I took a small sample out of fresh can of Arm-R-Seal Semi Gloss and measured the solids content. It was 41% solids. So that means 59% volatiles, which would put it just about in the middle of what is stated on the MSDS. This is consistent with how we wrote most of the MSDS's I was involved with in my own line of work.

[Harvey Pascoe]

If you're showing dust nibs with a wipe on finish, its got to be really bad. First, air pressure won't remove very fine dust. Second, neither will a rag as rags just push it around.If you are using a rag on bar wood, stop doing that; rough wood fibers are snagging on the rag fibers and leaving them on the wood. Have you ever cleaned a clothes dryer lint trap? That is all fibers that have come out of fabrics and to attempt to clean wood with a fabric is hopeless.

You can either use a tack rag or your hand which is very good at picking up dust. What I do is wash my hands, dry them and while still slightly damp, run it over the surface going in one direction only. This will pick up the finest particles of dust.

[Scott Holmes]

Harvey,

I use a rag very damp with mineral spirits (MS). Using a bare hand will result in very fine(too small to see) splinters. YOU CAN FEEL them!

Added bonus using a MS dampened rag is it will pick up 99% of the dust AND let you see approxmately what your project will look like with a coat of finsih on it; any milling marks; glue spots that you missed while final sanding. Using your bare hand, rag, or tack cloth will not show you any of that info... Cheaper than tack cloth too. Blue shop towel is also acceptable.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Scott, if you're talking about bare wood, who cares if you got dust in your first coat on bare wood? I surely do not. The only coat I worry about dust is the LAST one.

[Andy Maldoror]

i blew the wood and wiped down thoroughly with a soaked rag of MS.
something about the second coat of the finish is bringing out very small particles...probably coagulations of even finer particles. this especially happens when i do multiple passes trying to clean up excess.
only solution i've found so far is to just completely wipe off the finish a couple minutes after i apply it...seems to leave a small amount of varnish with nice rubbed look, but difficult to get consistent.
i may try straight BLO and then wax over what's already on there. would this be a good alternative?

[Scott Holmes]

Is BLO then wax a good idea? In a word, NO. BLO provides very little protection, wax even less than BLO.