I have a large figured walnut crotch with a split about halfway through the piece. The wood is otherwise solid and dried for years. If like to fill the split with black resin and turn a platter from it. I've turned some resin in the past but finishing has always been a challenge, especially with the walnut/resin combo. Right now I'm leaning towards sanding to 800, a Tripoli buff to remove any fine scratches in the black epoxy and final finishing with Osmo oil. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.
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Finishing resin/wood hybrid pieces
- Thread starter Chay Mullin
- Start date
I always treat hybrids as I would wood when choosing a finish. Sand to 600 and apply my finish. Of course, this is usually on pens, not bowls/platters/etc. I think your idea of sanding to 800 is good, not sure about just tripoli, though. That is a (relatively) aggressive compound. Depending on how it looks when done buffing I might move to a white diamond or something similar then the final finish and buff to a shine. My go-to lately for non-pen turnings has been shine juice. I sand through at least 600, higher if needed, then build to a shine using shine juice.
I finish those type turnings with an oil finish. I sand to 400 then apply oil and let it soak in for a little bit. then i wet sand with the oil up to 3000 grit.
I don't know about Osmo oil on resin...
If you haven't already been watching Jim Sprague's YouTube channel ("Sprague Woodturning") you should check it out, his videos are detailed and instructional. His specialties are inlay and wood / resin hybrids. He uses a Hunter Hercules carbide cutter to shape the resin, then does as you propose to do: sand then buff with tripoli. He has recently gone through a testing process of several finishes and has settled for now on Waterlox VOC compliant sealer/finish.
If you haven't already been watching Jim Sprague's YouTube channel ("Sprague Woodturning") you should check it out, his videos are detailed and instructional. His specialties are inlay and wood / resin hybrids. He uses a Hunter Hercules carbide cutter to shape the resin, then does as you propose to do: sand then buff with tripoli. He has recently gone through a testing process of several finishes and has settled for now on Waterlox VOC compliant sealer/finish.
Sprague woodturning is where I got the idea of the Tripoli buff from. I believe I've seen him use Osmo oils on hybrid pieces in past videos with nice results. I've also seen some furniture makers on YouTube using Osmo and Rubio on epoxy river tables so I figured it should work similarly on a bowl?
You could do a test piece or two. Make a saw cut onto a scrzp piece to simulate the crack. Fill with epoxy then after it's cured sand and finish. You could also test a larger "patch" by filling a partial depth drill hole.