Ironwood finishing

Ironwood will dull a bit with handling but it can easily be polished again. Most times a wet cloth and a vigorous scrub will do. If not 3000 grit will make it like new.
 
Ironwood is very hard and looks great with a nice glow from just fine sanding and a light buffing. It looks real and wears well and will not yellow like when a coating is applied. In my opinion it is unnecessary and undesirable. Larry

gQq6o6Am.jpg
 
I have all my wood stabilized by WSSI, including ironwood. I tried all the finishes years ago and decided the ONLY way to go is use stabilized wood.

On another note, I discovered two plastic shopping bags of stabilized wood that had been misplaced, was in a closet in the house. :)

Another way to get knives out there, I traded some knife work for a couple of nice custom wood rifle stocks. You might offer your skills for trade.

Another tip, I usually do mirror polish finish on most of my knives and it helped very much to get me busy making custom knives. At that time I was using diamond compound to mirror polish hard Rc steel.

One more tip: ditch brass and use only nickel silver.
 
Last edited:
That turned piece seems to have a decent amount of sap wood which should maintain contrast with the darker portion. In my opinion, the biggest issue with desert ironwood is whether it will turn dark as night or not. And it seems like it's just not predictable what will happen. You just use it and cross your fingers.

I noticed hand sanding up to 2000-3000 grit gives a beautiful finish to ironwood just by itself. Maybe some paste wax and/or buffing if you like a little more glossy pop?
 
I use the "raw lacquer" on my knife handle about ten layer,and use #7000,#14000,#30000 grit to polishing,so it look like glassy smooth,seem more layer will more smooth.
48052484092_48d4b51be5_z.jpg
received_2492355217444392_1[/url] by Jerry Wang, 於 Flickr[/IMG]
48052394796_bc86e8dfcd_z.jpg
received_915707578760272_0[/url] by Jerry Wang, 於 Flickr[/IMG]
 
sand it, and use a tiny bit of pure tung oil - that is all good ironwood needs imho
(stabilizing imho is needed for weaker wood with voids, like burls etc)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top