The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Folks,
I have a large piece of byrld cherry asking to made into a lap steel, but I don't know much about oil finishing on wood. Any real good ideas anyone?
Phil

Tom Pettingill has some AMAZING results with Tru-Oil. Here's his latest creation

Heres a Tru-Oil tutorial from LMI (link below). You can buy Tru-Oil from a gun shop or Walmart.

http://www.lmii.com/carttwo/truoil.htm

I've had good results with Danish oil, but never tried it with cherry.

I vote for the Tru oil also. I have always had great results with a Tru oil finish.

you see any major companies using tru oil??

not the best choice for a guitar finish. you need to spray with some sort of finish that is impervious to water or alcohol. oil finishes are easy to put on and are inviting...but they are not the first choice for a musical instrument. just my opinion and i have tried them so i do have some experience in oil on instruments. built several using oils. never again. customer request.

Tru-Oil is a good choice, but to get the sort of high-gloss that Tom gets, it takes a lot of patience and some finishing experience would be much preferred. In terms of protection, Tru-Oil should be fine...it's essentially a linseed oil based varnish and protects gunstocks from all sorts of weather and wear.

Lacquer (you can buy spray cans)is an easier choice, but again, a high-gloss look takes some experience to get it right. If a satin look is what you're after, then most any satin varnish, satin lacquer or several coats of Tru-Oil, Danish Oil or Tung Oil followed by very fine steel wool will work nicely.

The good thing about Cherry is that there's virtually no open grain to fill, so that even on the first application of finish, you have a fairly even and level surface.

Good luck with it.

John's advice is spot on

I like and use a lot of Tru Oil mainly because it really brings out the beauty in even the plainest of woods.
It's really more like an old school oil based varnish than a traditional drying oil like pure tung.
Once cured I find it to be quite durable and comparable to the popular thin skin nitro lacquer finishes. It is not going to be bullet proof like a thick modern polyester or 2 part catalyzed urethane.
You can take Tru Oil as far as you like, but even just 5 - 6 light coats looks great and works well.

If you want to do a more traditional lacquer finish, ReRanch forums is a wealth of very good finishing information and their products are top shelf.
http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewforum.php?f=1