Thread: Tung Oil finishing question

That's a beautiful piece of timber.

If it's a traditional Tung Oil that you're wiping on/off, just give it a week or so to fully cure, then apply another coat.

You can build up as many coats as you need to get the look you're after, from a satin matte right up to a full mirror gloss.

There's an old saw about it: apply once per day for a week, once a week for a month, once a year forever after. Don't take it as gospel, but it's a good rule of thumb to get that wow factor.

Should it be needed, you can sand lightly between coats.


More modern takes on Tung Oil are generally just much quicker to dry, although some aren't really Tung Oils at all... the only Tung Oil in them is on the label.

Personally, I wouldn't bother putting anything else over the top of it. That just makes it difficult to repair the finish should it ever be marked in some way. If it does, just sand back the affected area and then refinish in the same way that you did it the first time, applying a final coat or two over the whole thing to keep it looking as new. Easy.

Waxes and 'furniture oils' contaminate the surface, meaning the whole thing needs to be at least surface sanded to get rid of them before you can fix the finish.

A finishing lacquer or epoxy could be applied, but you should really wait a few months for the Tung Oil to fully polymerise before doing so. I know people like them because they add hard-wearingness (is that a word?) to the surface but, again, to repair any marks/damage it complicates things significantly.

Buffing, even by hand will enhance the sheen.

Welcome to the forum.

You could also try polishing and buffing with EEE Ultra Shine or something similar. It definitely lifts the shine on oil finishes.

Hi,
You will need to sand the top with fine sand paper and put the oil on the sand paper not the wood then when you have finished sanding wipe the mud made off and into the wood with a paper towel, you will need got do this a number of times starting with 600 grit wet & dry and when the grain is full you can progress to finer paper and you will see the finish start to stand out.
Regards, Dennis.