Question for Ed

[Walt2]

Ed, you said that you use True Oil on desert ironwood, I am putting it on a full tang skinner now. My question is, have you ever tried it on any stabilized wood? Wonder if the two would be compatable? I had wondered about this to stop fading of the finish caused by blood, sweat, or whatever.

[Ed Caffrey]

Hi Walt!

I use Tru-oil in two different ways, depending on the wood type, and if it's been stabilized or not.

Desert Ironwood is not a good candidate for Tru-Oil, on desert ironwood it will often leave a film that will turn "yellowish"....this is due the fact that ironwood is so dense that it just dosen't soak any of the Tru-oil into the wood. About the only way I would put ANY of it on desert ironwood is to apply it using your fingertip, then immediately wipe it back off with a clean paper towel. If you do it that way, the yellowish cast never shows up. Then just leave it at that....a super light film. Let it dry for at least a couple of hours.

Since I do a lot of carving/texturing on my handles, I will use Tru-oil in the manner I described above, even on stabilized woods that have been carved/textured. For me it's more that fact that once carved, that portion of the wood that has been textured generally has a different hue to it. By applying Tru-oil and then dabbing it right back off, it returns the textured area to the same hue as the surrounding wood....plus it seals the textured area(s).


As far as using it as a "finish" on stabilized woods, it can work, but you have to do it as I described. If you try to apply several coats to stabilized woods, it get more of a "plastic" look with each coat.

There are a couple of woods that it simple doesn't work with at all....two specifically that I know of are Cocobolo and Rosewood.

[Walt2]

Thanks for the info Ed.