Acacia Hardwood finish

[Julia19]

I'm building a simple coffee table and don't know anything about wood.

My situation is:

Bought Bunnings Acacia Solid Oiled Hardwood which is finished with Brown Hardwax Oil.
Do I need to also use a wood oil finish on top of the Hardwax oil? Or is the wood ready to use as is with the hardwax oil?

Many thanks!

[Mustangdude]

Hey Julia, I use the same acacia board as you to make small tables & various home decorative wooden pieces. Be careful with this timber as it's not hardwood (a pencil digs into it) and cannot be used on hard wearing surfaces as it will mark easily. I believe it's really only packing case timber stuck together but it is kiln dried which is good.

I don't like the finish straight from Bunnings, you can make it so much nicer by sanding the finish off with 80 grit paper and a block of wood or a cork rubbing block. Remove it completely.

I use a random orbital sander.

Then once its removed go over the piece with 320 grit paper to smooth out the surface. I wet the timber with water after that to make the grain stand up then re-sand when it's dry with 320 or something really fine to bring it up super smooth.

The last step and the best step is applying the oil. This brings that acacia up really nice, my wife loves the look. You won't believe the difference it makes.

The oil I use is a food grade oil from IKEA. it's about $10.00 for 500ml and that's enough to do stacks of timber, it goes a long way and is cheap.

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