Tru oil for handle and saya protection

My recent discovery of Tru oil is an excitement as I wanted to have a somewhat non-washing-away protective coating on handles and sayas.
I applied the oil on a few different wood and the resulting finish varies.
As the conditions of handles/sayas are different and humidity/temp/air flow affect the time to dry, I can understand different finish, however, I am not happy about the resulting finish of the oil on ebony; takes too long time to dry and even after a couple of days, I do not get the feel of complete driness - it's dry but somewhat feel stickness - I don't know how else I can explain it.

What has been your experience of the tru oil on your handles/sayas of different wood??

Thanks.

Karl

if its going sticky doesent that mean that its not very good to put on wood?

jai said:

if its going sticky doesent that mean that its not very good to put on wood?

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That is the part that I want to confirm; I'd like to find out if I have to apply it only on certain wood.

It's used in the gun world a lot, but never heard of it bein used on kitchen knives. Try Tung oil, I've been using it for a while, ad love it. Stays "wet" looking, but dry and smooth to the touch after buffing. Does dry out after a while and after a lot of washing, but I only have to re-apply once every few months after daily use.

I've used tru oil on a camping knife, rosewood scales I think, and it wasnt that strong of a finish, and didnt help with weather proofing at all. I used it when backpacking in the smokeys, so high humidity. Same conditions as a kitchen.

Tru Oil doesn't incorporate well into all types of wood. Some of the more oily woods barely soak it in. If it feels sticky, it will eventually dry. It has taken almost a 3-4 days for mine to dry completely. Start slow and light, try to apply an even coat. Too much will gunk up and look bad.
When completely dry, sand and apply again until you reach the desired finish.
Some woods just don't need it though. Renaissance wax is great for a lot of things that Tru doesn't work on.

pure tung oil takes forever to dry though.

knyfeknerd said:

Tru Oil doesn't incorporate well into all types of wood. Some of the more oily woods barely soak it in. If it feels sticky, it will eventually dry. It has taken almost a 3-4 days for mine to dry completely. Start slow and light, try to apply an even coat. Too much will gunk up and look bad.
When completely dry, sand and apply again until you reach the desired finish.
Some woods just don't need it though. Renaissance wax is great for a lot of things that Tru doesn't work on.

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+1, Tru Oil does not seem to work well with oily woods, even after a few days it can feel tacky. Stick with a wax, I like the Birchwood Casey gunstock wax, where Tru Oil does not pan out.

I like to use TruOil finish. It gives a nice, natural looking finish with a very thin film.

I typically apply generously the first coat, let absorb for 10 min then wipe out excess and let it dry 12-24 hours. Then I scrub the area with 0000 steel wool and apply a second coat, this time just enough to cover the surface (less will be absorbed). After 3-4 coats, you get a nice, satin finish on your wood, while preserving the natural look. Very important to let TruOil dry before re-coating. I don't like leave the excess on and sand it when it is dried - it doesn't dry uniformly and it gums your paper and leaves smudges on the piece.

M

Ok...the way how I applied is somewhat consistent (tru oil + 0000 steel wool + thin coat + 3~4 application)
with what Marko described. So, I am glad to find that out.
It appears that what I experienced is not unique to me and there is variation of result for different wood.
For a ho wood handle and one of Mario's handle, I was very pleased with the outcome but I could not replicate the same level of finish with other handles.
Looks like I will have to wait longer time to dry.

Thank you all.

Karl

Afaik tru oil is a blend of tung oil, so similar effect. I find it slow to dry on oily woods, so tend to put a coat on, when dry sand smooth and then buff with wax (I use a mix of beeswax with carnauba and mineral oil). Best result I've had is on natural koa. My bottle has started to gum up now so I'd be mindful of shelf life, around 6months in my experience.

TB_London said:

Afaik tru oil is a blend of tung oil, so similar effect. I find it slow to dry on oily woods, so tend to put a coat on, when dry sand smooth and then buff with wax (I use a mix of beeswax with carnauba and mineral oil). Best result I've had is on natural koa. My bottle has started to gum up now so I'd be mindful of shelf life, around 6months in my experience.

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Sounds like you have a good wax mix there TB

Tru-Oil is fine...it will finish harder than Tung Oil and it also dries quicker than pure Tung Oil. True oil can get a mirror shine, Tung Oil...not so much. Tung will feel "smoother" like real wood...but won't last as long as Tru-oil. As far as Ebony is concerned...it is super tight grained and penetration takes longer than other more porous woods. Not sure. Also if you are putting it on the Saya I sold you (Nenohi) that saya had a (non protective but rather a conditioning oil to prevent drying out) applied. That could be another reason the tru-oil is taking a long time to dry.

you should wait 24 hours between coats if you really want a perfect finish...

vai777 said:

you should wait 24 hours between coats if you really want a perfect finish...

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Tru oil works fine with most of my knife.
For some wood, it takes longer to dry (I had to wait for more than a few days) but eventually all worked out ok.

Think some of the earlier answers alluded to this but some oil finishes can be tricky to get a good coating with on oily or especially dense woods (cocobolo, ebony, some rosewoods etc).
The gummy result typically means you need more drying time, or have built layers of the coating film over prior layers that weren't yet dry. Easiest answer as others have said is just wait longer...also, be sure to sand evenly before coating and between coatings so the pore size of the wood grain is as uniform as possible - this will help get more even absorption.

As an aside - I've done a lot of furniture finishing with oil based finishes. I haven't used Tru Oil extensively but it's an 11% linseed oil blend and I have worked with Linseed oil quite a bit. In my experience Linseed is one of those oils that's harder to get good coatings with on many exotics. I personally prefer Tung Oil based products for these kinds of woods, and specifically like a product called Waterlox. It's food safe and non toxic once fully dried, but the higher resin quantity in the oil blend lends to better adhesion/hardening on oily woods. The original version of the product has a matte sheen and is easily built up to a nice finish. It mixed with a little buffed out wax coating as a final protective top coat can make for a great finish that's silky looking but not too slippery. In either case - 24 hours before recoating was good advice.

Another trick from the furniture world for oily woods is to use shellac as a sanding sealer to fill some of the grain and provide a barrier between the wood's natural oils and the oil coating you apply. With this, you'd wipe on a quick coat of shellac, let it dry (fast)....then sand off the bulk of it with a 180 grit or higher sand paper. The slight amount of remaining shellac fills some of the wood pores and causes your oil coating to float more/penetrate less.... you still get a great film coating but you get less issues from the woods natural oils interfering with the long oils in the coating itself.

Is it slippery when wet?

I found tru oil could be if multiple coats done and the final not cut back

Gentlemen, you have picked up a 10 year old discussion

Just bought custom wa handle. Put laquer and slippery as hell. Thats why i brought this discussion back to see if tru oil slippery

Ahhh, all is good

But to your question - I would not try to use tru-oil on very oily woods (as discussed back in this tread). Just sand the lacquer oil, dillute the truoil about 1:1 (or even weaker), then apply a thin layer to sanded / finished handle and wipe any excess away immediately. Basically rub it 'dry'. Then let cure for at least 1 day (better two). Repeat a couple of times untill you get the finish you like. You may want to experiment to add different hardening oils to the mix. It is basically a black magic. Some even add a little lacquer.

Cool, thank you for the tips. I did take off the lacquer using nail remover. But now it seems like dry without protection lol. I prob just do 1 or 2 layer and hope not slippery when wet. Since this is for wa handle.

I have been using Tru-oil for years on bows that see all kinds of weather. I have never seen anything perform as well for as simple as it is to apply. Just wipe the wood down first with a fast evaporating solvent, even rubbing alcohol will do before the first coat. I apply Tru-oil with my fingers in a thin coat and sand in-between the first few of coats, no need to sand after that. A rag dampened with oil and sprinkled with Rottenstone powder will buff the finish it to a very high gloss. Easy to add more coats in the future.