Malaysian hardwood finish

[WoodWad]

Howdy all,
been a long time. A little while back i picked up 2 Malaysian hardwood piles (3400x230x230) from a nearby mariner - very cheap at that - $80 for the lot!!! Hard heavy stuff!! Anyway, after slabbing the timber with the chainsaw, planing it down, and making a dining table out of it (almost), I have to decide on the type of finish. Smooth satin finish looks nice so after some research on the forum I picked up some Feast Watson China Oil and some Minwax Wipe-On Poly. I'm yet to apply the finish and am scared about applying the oil. Past experiences with oil on larger surfaces have not been pleasant however i have been assured that this china oil with the few drops of tung oil they plonk in is nice easy stuff to work with.

So i guess what i'm asking is... am i making the right choice by applying a few coats of China Oil followed by a few coats of WipeOn Poly?? Any other suggestions cos this table is a one-off and i really can't afford to stuff it up now...

Here are some piccies
Note all the black crap on it is my love of ebony Timbermate. The timber was riddled with borer holes, so i decided to make a feature out of it and fill it in black. Looks lovely doesn't it? hehe
Can't wait to sand it back now...

btw - any idea what type of malaysian timber it is. The guy i bought it from had no idea. It is suited to marine environments so i guess it must be ok.


Johnny

[RufflyRustic]

Shessh!! You do indeed 'love' timbermate!!

I don't know about the China oil as I've never used it, but the Wipe on Poly is great stuff!

For further info on Wipe on Poly have a read through this recent thread. It has a link to the WoP webpage and also another very interesting thread on WoP as well.

Cheers
Wendy

[WoodWad]

Interesting stuff there Wendy, thanks for that

I hadn't used either of them before and i was surprised that you actually need to shake the can of Wipe-on Poly before use. I always thought you should avoid that with poly, but i guess they know best

cheerio

[rsser]

Woodwad, you should experiment a bit with the underside of the table.

It may be that the Malay timber is oily .... feel like it when you worked it? In which case it's no drama but it may not absorb that much oil either.

[Rookie]

Interesting stuff there Wendy, thanks for that

I hadn't used either of them before and i was surprised that you actually need to shake the can of Wipe-on Poly before use. I always thought you should avoid that with poly, but i guess they know best

cheerio

I think that you avoid shaking up Poly if you are brushing it on because the air bubbles stay in it. Wiping on avoids that. But don't quote me. Just heard it somewhere.

[WoodWad]

yeah John, i guess that makes sense. thanks. I tried a sample of the poly on a scrap bit of timber and it comes up nicely. Satin finish. I wonder if i should just use the wipe-on poly alone or if i should risk the china oil first then poly.... ??
I think the plan is to sand the crap out of the table, all the way down to 2000 grit, then a few coats of wipe-on poly. hmmm...