Danish Oil problems...

I'm having a problem with the finish of my danish oil. I've just put on the 3rd coat, and it seems to be less shiny than after the 2nd coat.

Here's my process...

I have a camphor slab desktop, roughly 2400 x 750, and a 2nd piece 2400 x 250 for a shelf. I sanded both to 400 grit, orbital on the top surface, and hand sanded the edges.

Then Danish Oil. First night wiped down the wood with a cloth, then I wiped on the danish oil, and kept an eye on it for 30 minutes, touching up the dry areas with more oil to cover it all nicely before wiping off with a clean cloth. Next night, I dusted off the surface and wiped in on the 2nd coat of oil, left for 30 minites and wiped off again.

3rd night I dusted off again, wiped on the oil, wet-sanded with 600 grit, by hand with a sanding block with the grain (took me most of the half hour - wet sanding the oil is like swimming in molasses!), and then wiped it off.

It seems to me that the end result has less lustre and more 'dead' spots than it did after the 2nd coat. It's gone backwards. :(

Now, I actually started with the shelf one day later, so it's one coat behind, and looks better. The grain is more apparent on the shelf, so I guess the wet-sanding has had some positive effect there, and the desk feels smoother to the touch, but the overall result is less pleasing, having lost some of it's beautiful lustre.

I had a theory that perhaps some tiny wood dust was now caught in the top of the finish, and was reducing the surface shine, and gave parts of it a quick wipe-on-wipe-off treatment with a bit more oil, but no real change.

So, now I would like to bring it back to life. Can I dry-sand tomorrow with the orbital at 400 grit again, and put on another coat of oil? Should I just give it another coat without sanding?

When I do the shelf, should I dry sand to 600 before the oil, instead of doing it with the oil?

Any suggestions?

I tried some more things, and had more theories. I tried wet-sanding to 1000 grit, and wiping the oil quickly away, and some areas of the wood went quite shiny, even shinier than I wanted, but the dull areas stayed dull. So, I had a theory that perhaps some woods don't like wet-sanding. I know oil shouldn't raise the grain, but perhaps something like that could happen. Maybe there were burnished sections of the surface, and the wet-sand pulled them back out again.

Anyway, I decided to dry-sand it at 800, paying special attention to sanding and then burnishing the duller areas so that they had a good shine after the dry sanding.

After a good wipedown followed by another coat of oil, and waiting the full 30 minutes before wiping off, and the Desktop has come up a treat. Looks amazing, and is ready for a wax coat.

The shelf still has some dull spots. Rubbing over them again while it's drying seems to help - maybe pusing the fibres down into the drying oil. I'll might give it another hit tomorrow with the oil.

Here's some photos...

Looks very nice, sometimes the wood hasn't read the instructions or the book on finishing. We just have to keep trying things untill the wood is happy:D When the woods happy so are we:;

Hi

Love the look of the wood.

Although I'm very new to this also having just finished my first project - have recently been through some similar dilemmas with danish oil.

After wet sanding to 400 a couple of time with DO, when I got low to the horizontal there were certainly plenty of dull patches. I dived into the 0000 steel wool - making 2-3 passes with this lubed up with DO, then immediately wiped off with a clean cloth.

Result is pretty satin but reflective enough to mirror the adjacent bed-head when again seen from 20-30degrees above the surface. I'm really pleased with the result - just not sure if you're after something glossier - but worth a try!