What's going on here? (disappearing finish question)

[Tom Porter]

I'm finishing a bowl I turned out of cherry that had some soft sections where rot was beginning (I'l say rot or rotted for simplicity's sake but that may be a bit extreme; these sections turned and sanded almost as well as the rest of the bowl). I treated the bowl with 2-3 coats of boiled linseed oil and noticed the softish sections seemed to continue to soak up the oil no matter how much I put on. Once the bowl was dried, there wasn't a noticeable difference in color or sheen, so I went on and have been using homemade wipe-on poly. The same thing is happening; the sections of rotted wood appear dry almost immediately after wiping. In fact, I apply the poly liberally and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then I wipe off the excess. There's no excess on the soft sections the way there is on the rest of the bowl. An hour or two later and the finish seems pretty consistent across the whole bowl. My question is this: should I continue to apply the poly until the bowl looks the same everywhere after the finish has sat for 10 minutes or should I just apply coats until I'm happy with the finish when dried?

I'll also point out I filled numerous holes, cracks and imperfections on the bowl with epoxy resin with fluorescent powder solubilized in it. It was a bit of a messy job and it's possible that the sections that don't seem to be taking up much finish got impregnated with epoxy, though I sanded it down to the bare wood (except in the holes, etc).

Any thoughts?

(and honest to God, I didn't see the other post titled "what's happening here?" when I titled mine. I can't change it so it does make me a little unimaginative.)

[Lee Schierer]

You have 24 hours from the original post to make changes. To change the title you would need to use the "Go advanced" option in edit. If you are unable to do that post what you would like the title to be and I can change it for you.

[Wayne Lomman]

Give your finish a chance to dry before going on with more coats. It needs to cure in the soft areas to be able to hold up the next coats. That being said, if you have some border line rotten areas, you will have a bit of grief getting it to look good but you will get there. Cheers