help with refinishing a rosewood tote

[mark kosse]

Howdy all,

I have a nice #3 bailey (t16) that i picked from a box of tools at a flea market. The japaning is 98% but the knob and tote were pretty pitiful. For some reason I decided to refinish rather than just BLO it and i'm stumped now. It seems no amount of sanding will take the darkness away. I'm changing the paper but now after an hour of hand sanding it's still dark. What to do now. Do i hit it with some paint remover?

Thanks, Mark...wishing he had never gone down this road...

[Allan Speers]

They were typically finished with only shellac. Any oil finish will make them too dark, and will get even darker over time.

I dunno what you can do now except live with it.

[Lonnie Gallaher]

You can try soaking in lacquer thinner. I have done this in the past and it did lighten the wood some.

[Frederick Skelly]

Ive never been able to get it to lighten up. I always just apply shellac and live with it. But Ive never tried Lonnie's approach. If you do, please let us know how it turns out.
Fred

[Allen Jordan]

Scraping is the only thing that worked for me. Sharpen up a straight scraper and a gooseneck scraper and go to town. You could also try files/rasps.

[Warren Mickley]

Rosewood lightens with exposure to light. Wood that sat around for a decade or two is much lighter than when freshly cut/ You may have noticed that the wood is darker now than when you first started removing material. It is likely to be dark throughout.

[mark kosse]

I had tried removing it before I started sanding with denatured alcohol but it didn't melt it away like I thought it would. I've found DA to just wipe shellac clean off old bamboo rods. I'll try some thinner. I really didn't want to scrape for fear of faceting.

[Jim Koepke]

Light rosewood?

Some of my totes are very dark naturally. Many of these have only a wax and oil finish.

If you want a light tote, you might try making a new one out of maple.

jtk

[Allan Speers]

You could try oxcillic acid, but I dunno how the final result would be.

[Kent Adams]

Mark, one of the things I do to take out dark water stains in hardwood floors is to use hydrogen peroxide. You might want to try that and see if it works for you.

[Mike Brady]

I'm not quite following your question. Rosewood will be the same dark reddish brown all the way through. I have redone many knobs and totes from planes and used about every finish there is; and they all end up about the same dark color. I have some with sapwood stripes, but those are unusual, and desirable. My favorite finish for these plane handles is spray shellac followed by spray satin lacquer. It is very durable and original looking. Usually the pieces are stripped to bare wood first and then lightly sanded before finishing. It sounds to me as if you were expecting the color to be a stain that stayed on the surface. Stanley used that method only during World War II when rosewood was not being imported.

[Allan Speers]

I assumed Mark meant he already used BLO and now realizes his mistake.

quote: "For some reason I decided to refinish rather than just BLO it" - emphasis on his word "just."


If not, then I dunno WHAT he's saying.

[Mike Henderson]

I'm not quite following your question. Rosewood will be the same dark reddish brown all the way through. I have redone many knobs and totes from planes and used about every finish there is; and they all end up about the same dark color. I have some with sapwood stripes, but those are unusual, and desirable. My favorite finish for these plane handles is spray shellac followed by spray satin lacquer. It is very durable and original looking. Usually the pieces are stripped to bare wood first and then lightly sanded before finishing. It sounds to me as if you were expecting the color to be a stain that stayed on the surface. Stanley used that method only during World War II when rosewood was not being imported.

I agree. All the totes and knobs on my old Stanleys are dark. Just lightly sand the wood, maybe finishing with a 220 to 400 grit and then apply the finish of your choice. The result will be a dark knob or tote. For that matter, if you put nothing on it, it will still be dark. That's just the way it is.

Mike

[Phil Mueller]

Mark, I've always assumed the dark areas are dirt/grime, skin oil, sweat, whatever. I too have tried sanding with little luck. I have had better results by first soaking in lacquor thinner then washing with Murphy's oil soap, then medium steel wool. Still doesn't get it all out, but it's the best I've tried so far.

[Allan Speers]

I have a number or Rosewood knobs and totes that are only medium dark. You can clearly see the grain. That's the look I prefer, and oil will ruin it. I think Phil is correct, above,,that most really dark rosewood totes had their shellac worn off, and so are full of "dirt/grime, skin oil, sweat, whatever."