Hi,

I am currently making 3 boxes and decided to try the oil mentioned above for a change. So I've oiled and finished the inside faces of the boxes. The instructions say it should be used in a similar manner to HBO, i.e. allowed to soak for an hour then the saturation point reached before wet sanding. I cut the process short. I soaked the timber for as long as it took me to go from one end of the pile of box sides to the other, then reapplied the oil with the same incubation period then reapplied the oil and sanded immediately.
The results are really good. There is a great shine to the timber and the appearance of the grain is enhanced as well.
I'm convinced that using a hard burnishing technique will work with most oils to give a lustrous finish. Forget any oils which contain Poly though. It just gums up the process. I now need to test the resultant oiled timber for resistance to heat and liquid and see if it can be wiped down with Spray and Wipe. My feeling is that it will.
So this technique of hard burnishing wll return a great lustrous finish for only a little work. Oh and the lustre doesn't go away with time. I have boards that I did with Scandinavian Oil nearly five years ago and they're still highly reflective.
Pic 1 is the Blackwood, Red Gum and Jarrah boards reflecting light and images.
Pic 2 shows the colour enhancement in the finished timber
Pic 3 shows the final finish in situ.