mineral oil island counter top is like velvet??? help

[Chance Raser]

TLR - wet sanded on mineral oil and now it has a weird velvet like finish. Any ideas how to fix?

I made some mistakes, and now I am having to figure out how to live with them. I didn't do enough research prior to finishing my walnut island top.

1st mistake was not wet sanding at all, I never raised the grain. this is odd, because I do this on every bowl i make while it is still on the lathe, but for some reason i completely neglected to do it on the island top.
2nd mistake was not realizing that mineral oil is great for cutting boards (this is where my research stopped, it was like, "oh, people finish cutting boards with mineral oil...that will be perfect for an island countertop, looks great and easy to maintain!"
3rd mistake, i am not sure where it really went wrong. but here's what happened:
I installed the countertop and it looked great.
then my kid spilled some water on it which I thought would be totally fine. i didn't care. until it went from being 220 smooth to raised grain rough.
I wet sanded with water and 220, it got smooth again. Yeah!
I cleaned it as thoroughly as i could (there was a lot of sanding sludge).
I dried the surface by hand with paper towels.
I let it completely dry.
I used a tack cloth to remove any left over residue.

now the issue...It is like it has a velvet finish. depending on which way you rub it, it looks clean or it looks dusty.
to fix it, I then:
washed with mild soap and water, dried, tack cloth --> no change, still the dusty velvet look.
wiped with micro fiber cloth and mineral spirts --> no change, still the dusty velvet look.

pics to show what it looks like, and a quick video clip showing it
https://youtu.be/_0-nmn2oe5U

first pic is what it looked like before i tried to "fix" it! ahhhhhh
PXL_20210123_025557278.jpgPXL_20210213_160107872.jpgPXL_20210213_160113740.jpgPXL_20210213_160122295.MP.jpgPXL_20210213_160132867.MP.jpg

Any ideas what to try next?

[John TenEyck]

There must still be wood dust and mineral oil on the top. I can't come up with any other reason it would show those lines when you draw your fingers across it. If true, I would wipe is several times with mineral spirits using paper towels. If you see sludge coming off then I was right. When the paper towels come up clean let it dry and you'll be back to zero. From there, pick your poison for what to finish it with. Any oil finish will show water marks and allow the grain to raise if it gets wet.

John

[al heitz]

As John suggests, then follow by sealing it with shellac, followed by a good poly like Arm-R-Seal (satin or gloss, as you prefer)?

[Phil Mueller]

Pure guess, here. Given when you run your fingers one way it’s cloudy and the other way it’s not, and it feels like velvet, seems to suggest there are still wood fibers standing up. The wood is filled with mineral oil that isn’t dry and continued wet sanding just creates fuzz. I’d probably either wait a month or so and let the oil dry/evaporate, or wash it with warm soapy water to get as much oil out of it as possible. Let it dry well. Then, DRY sand to 220/320 and tack off the dust.

I really think the issue is the wet sanding. If you want to keep with the mineral oil, wait for the oil to dry some, dry sand it to smooth and apply more oil....no wet sanding, just apply the oil, let it soak in, and wipe the excess with paper towels.

[Kevin Jenness]

I agree with Phil's prescription, but I would suggest one last step before refinishing. Wet the surface to make the loose fibers stand up, let it dry then sand with fine paper (320#) to cut them off.

Mineral oil ill never cure and requires frequent re-application. A more durable, easily renewable finish with no toxic ingredients can be had with pure walnut, tung or linseed oil. If you are not going to be chopping on the counter, a film finish will be more durable yet.

If you do decide on a film finish, a thorough test sample is in order. Go through all the steps so far on a small piece of walnut and do an adhesion test. Residual mineral oil may cause an issue. If so, cleaning with a solvent or a shellac barrier coat may be neccesary.

[Scott Holmes]

Wet sanding is to smooth and polish a film FINISH. Wet sanding bare wood is nothing I would ever think about doing prior to finishing.

A better finish for a working woods surface is mineral oil and wax (bees wax - nice light scent; paraffin wax - no taste or smell)

Mix about 5 parts mineral oil with about 1 part wax. I microwave it to melt the wax (use glass container).

DRY Sand wood smooth with 220 or so...

Slather the oil wax mixture on like mayonnaise on a sandwich; let it soak up as mush as it can, after an hour or so wipe it dry.


FYI: walnut is not the best choice for cutting surface. Ring porous cell structure

Nut and vegetable oils can go rancid.

[Prashun Patel]

My advice is to get that mineral oil off the surface. It will be hard. I would sand it dry several times over the next few MONTHS and then finally once almost all of it has been removed I would apply a wiping varnish.

I believe your problem is that the grain is being raised when it gets wet and that’s causing the light to reflect differently when rubbed.

[Chance Raser]

thanks for all the advice, probably going to let it sit and dryout for a while. Then do some dry sanding and then possibly go the way of Scotts suggested mineral oil and bees wax.

I have plenty of cutting boards, so the island countertop is not intended to be cut on. however knowing that that may occur was one of the (ill advised) reasons i went with mineral oil, i figured it would be super easy to lightly sand and reapply.

my wife doenst want a shiny film finish, we were going for the dull/matte finish which the mineral oil achieved, until it didn't.

thanks again everyone.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I recently finished a walnut vanity top. I used Zpoxy finishing resin to seal the counter. It dries with a high sheen finish, but you sand it down and you have filled the grain with a clear resin. I then top coated with Target flat finish EM 9300. This retains a low sheen finish while sealing the counter and providing UV protection. The target finish is water based so it is relatively low odor and dries fast.

[Jim Becker]

That looks really great, Joe!! Z-poxy is a great product for grain filling and for use under a waterborne, it warms things up nicely, too.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thanks Jim. I should give you credit for the recommendation. It was fun watching some of the luthiers on you tube use Zpoxy on acoustic guitars. Though I have to say I am now intrigued by the results I’m seeing here of the target EM-8000CV product especially on Walnut. John TenEync’s Walnut table turned out really nice.

[Jim Becker]

Prashun has used the EM8000cv on walnut to great effect, too. I used the Z-poxy for grain fill on my second guitar build (electric) to smooth out the sapele and was VERY pleased with the end result. While the top coat is EM7000hb instead of EM8000cv, the Z-Poxy was of great benefit for both grain filling and color.

[Wes Grass]

I don't know what kind of mess it would make here, but the 'standard' for drawing oil out of gunstocks is a mix of solvent and 'whiting' (chalk dust). I think they generally use acetone, which is a fire hazard of course. So you'd want to haul this outside if at all possible. And if you're gonna do that, would it be even easier to plane it down and start over?