Oily Osage???

[EASTERNARCHER]

Well, I finished tillering and shooting in of my BBO. Now the finish.....
I sprayed a coat of Tru-Oil over the entire bow well over a week ago and after 3 days it hadn't dried yet, so I used 0000 steel woold and stripped the entire bow. I figured maybe it was too cool in my back room, or the Tru-Oil itself was cold from sitting on the floor.

I warmed the bow and the Tru-oil and tried again. It looked good, and after a few hours I moved it out to the main dining room and hung it from the ceiling with the ceiling fan running for circulation. Well that was Tuesday!  here we are at Saturday nite, and the oil has dried on the boo and even over the Cocobolo riser!(Mind you I had put 2 coats of superglue over the Coco)  >:(but the Osage belly is still just a wee bit tacky. Too tacky to buff out with steel wool and give another coat!

I had no idea that Osage was this oily, and that's the only answer I can come up with!It's almost as oily as Cocobolo!! I wish I had known that at first. I mayve would have used massey finish or de-greased it better with acetone.

Am I right about this??

[Steve Kendrot]

I believe I recall reading in hunting the BBO that osage required degreasing. Haven't had the experience yet though.

[yamapup]

When I made self bows a decade ago, I degreased with Drano mixed with water. It was incredible the amount of yellow oil/water that would come out. Pup

[wingnut]

Osage does not require any form of oil removal.  I would suspect the finish has gone bad.  I don't work with TruOil because it takes so long between coats.  I know if it goes on a bit heavy it takes forever.  We have finished hundreds of osage bows with a variety of finishes and have never experienced what you are describing.  Now Cocobolo is a differnet story. LOL

YamaPup,

I would imagine the osage turns very dark with that Drano mix.  The yellow is just color.  In fact, it was the original dye for khaki military uniforms.

Mike

Mike

[Osagetree]

I'd agree with wingnut,,, osage aint oily! Something is wrong with your finish!

[EASTERNARCHER]

Originally posted by Osagetree:
I'd agree with wingnut,,, osage aint oily! Something is wrong with your finish!

OK, I trust your opinions on this.....so what finish can I use that will give satisfactory results, other than the bum cans I have here.

[Dave2old]

I've built some 3 dozen bows with osage and have never encountered any oiliness or finish problems. I use spray-on MinWax spar-urethane, which I guess is cheating. But it works great, is easy to patch if you get a nick, and you have choices from glossy to satin. A friend just rubs his bows down with beeswax. Only seriously oily wood I've worked with is bocote, which has to be wiped with thinner immediately before applying glue and finish. Good luck, dave

[Brian Gillispie]

Hey all,


I heard on this site that the drying agent in Tru oil can expire on containers that have been opened.  Did you use an old opened container of truoil?  Or did you use a freshly opened container?

Brian Gillispie

[Eric Krewson]

Every now and then I run across a piece of osage that is very dark orange all the way through and tends to be very oily.

[4runr]

I had a bottle of True Oil that was only about 1.5 years old and it caused me to have to completely restrip a Bear K-Mag that I refinished. It's less than $5 at Wally World- not worth taking a chance at messing up your hard work.

[mmgrode]

It might not be completely the finish's fault.  I have experienced tackiness for days after applying a first coat of polyurethane...from a new can!  Have also had this happen with tru-oil as you mentioned.

[Aeronut]

I have used Minwax Polyurethane on my BBO's and haven't had any drying problems.  The problem I see is that the poleurethane has yellowed badly.

Dennis

[EASTERNARCHER]

Well, here's what I did.. I stripped it down and gave it 2 THIN coats of shellac to seal everything in. It dried really fast this time. No signs of tackiness either.
Now...what do I use for final finish? Tru-Oil, spray Minwax, or thin coats of brushable Helmsman Spar Urethane?

[Flesner]

I have had this problem with some old Tru oil.
It finally did dry but it took days.
I threw it away and opened a new bottle for the rest of the coats.
No problems with the fresh bottle.