Thread: ideas on finishing

Try some oil on an offcut, (make sure you wipe off the excess after 10 minutes or so) let it dry for a day then put some wax on it and you can buff it up with a shoe polish brush, best not to experiment with a finished carving! I find that linseed oil will darken much more than tung oil.

Donna

Hey Chris, will your carving be inside or outside?? Weather exposure causes a whole different set of problems...Inside?? I like to use an "antiquing" effect on carvings with deeper detail. I start with an initial clear finish coat, that can be pretty much anything but wax, (lacquer/tung oil/ polyu varnish) let that dry. Working in small areas, use an oil based GEL stain, (color your choice) brush that on (small areas) and using a rag (paper towel works too) wipe the area you have just stained, The color will stay in the recesses and the taller areas will be the color of the natural wood. Let that dry WELL, and apply a couple more coats of whatever you started with...
If you have a desire for "all over color" think about tinting your topcoat. The paint store will sometimes give you a small amount of their tint material (think oil based paints) add tint color to small amounts of your varnish/tung oil/ and apply that....Experimenting is never a bad thing!!
Have fun with it...

thanks for the tips. very good info. whatever i do with this particular one i will now have some new experimenting to do. i also just found out from a friend that it isnt really a burl after all. it is going to be an indoor piece