Danish oil problem

[Jerry Lear]

I re-turned a maple bow, sanded through 400, and applied Watco Danish-oil Finish. I flooded the bowl & continued to apply to keep it wet for 15 minutes, waited about 10 minutes & applied several more coats. After four hours, I noticed the bowl had some light spots that didn't seem to soak in the oil. I reapplied several more coats & after about four hours, the light spots were still there. When I say light spots, they are areas about 2-3" long & on the outside of the bowl maybe 3 or 4 spots. The inside covered quite nicely.
I had done another maple bowl earlier & it had some of the same type spots but not nearly as many as this one.
If anyone has any idea of what I may or may not be doing that would cause this problem, your help would be appreciated. This spots really make the bowl look terrible.
Thanks,
Jerry

[Richard Coers]

I'm guessing it has something to do with the sanding. Is it hard maple, or soft. Hard maple sanded to 400 will not want to soak up much of anything. Are the spots on the long grain side? None of the end grain sections? You may have just burnished it too much. Try hitting the outside with 320, or maybe even 220, by hand and add more oil. You can wet sand the bowl with oil on it if you want it "smoother". I'm thinking you put more heat, or more sanding on the outside since it would be easier to do there. Just guessing though.

[Bob Bergstrom]

+ 1 with Rich. Sound like case Harding of the wood fibers. Wet sand it back with a slurry of sanding dust and oil.

[Jeff Nicol]

If you could post a picture we could make a better judgement on the issue, but with maple you can get tearout or a heavy cut that will bend the wood fibers through a a depth of 1/16" or more depending on what may have happened. I just roughed out a large hard maple vase and took some very heavy roughing cuts and as I was shaping it a bit more I could see where I had bent some of the fibers. Since it was still wet I cleaned up the marks and hope they will not be there when it is ready to re-turn and finish it up.

I agree with the over sanding also, as the wood has such tight grain that leaving it at 220-320 and applying the oil is a good thing. Then with the next couple coats I would wet sand it to fill in and smooth out the surface, this works well like others have stated.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Bernie Weishapl]

+1 on what Richard said. I rarely ever sand over 280 grit or 320 grit on bowls. I talked with Vince at Vince's Wood N Wonders. He said with some woods over sanding is almost worse than under sanding because you burnish the wood and it won't accept any finish. Hard maple is one of them.

[Prashun Patel]

Personally, I've sanded hard maple and cherry to 400 and even 600 both on turned and flat work before oiling or finishing. While it may affect the ability for the grain to pop, it should not affect the finish's ability to stick, or to provide an even sheen. Could your spots be the result of tearout or inadequate sanding at the lower grits? Alternatively, did you splatter or stick anything on it that might be sealing the wood in spots?

[Reed Gray]

Some times, the wood just spots because.....

robo hippy

[Pat Scott]

Maybe you're trying to apply too much oil too soon? You said "I flooded the bowl & continued to apply to keep it wet for 15 minutes, waited about 10 minutes & applied several more coats." I wipe DO on the bowl and try and keep it wet for several minutes, then wipe off the excess and let it dry overnight. I might have spots that the oil soaks in and are hard to keep wet, but oh well. With Maple, come back after an hour and wipe the bowl down again with a dry towel to remove any spots (dots) of oil that have bled back to the surface. Now let it sit overnight. The next day you can put on a 2nd coat and you'll notice that the 1st coat started to fill the pores and the dry spots now stay wetter longer. Put on a 3rd coat or 4th coat and call it good.

Or if you want, the next time try a sanding sealer before your first coat of oil.