Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Scrub_buck on January 18, 2010, 02:48:58 pm
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Being pretty green at this bow making business, I have tons of questions ... but the one I wish to ask now is the following:
With a hickory (whitewood) bow, is it OK to stain with a minwax type stain and then seal with the parrafin wax? Will the parrafin soak into the wood after the minwax sealer has been applied?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
Scrub
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i use minwax natural stain. i think there is a good chance the it will not fill the pores to much for the wax. never tried it though.
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If the Minwax has varnish in it it will probably repel the wax. One of my favorite colorations for hickory and other white woods is crushed charcoal. Grind it up fine and rub it into the wood and wipe the excess off. It will show off the grain nicely. The wax finish over that will set it in.
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Having trouble with finish on Ipe, but have done Hickory with great results. I use an old white sock or piece of clean towel, and rubber or unpowdered gloves, and wipe the stain on liberally. I then go over it twice with a clean cloth and essentially wipe it dry as possible. Minwax can be reapplied after a few hours if you desire a darker finish, but you need to be wiping off the excess. I've used Spar varnish and Polyurethane, and Tru oil on Hickory over Minwax, and it's fine. I use a couple of long plastic coated twist ties on the nock groove and hang it on a nail between coats, reversing ends as you go. Not too heavy on the finish coats or it'll run. I wish this Da*m Ipe was as easy to work !! Good Luck !!
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If you really want to get the color into the wood an alcohol based aniline dye is the way to go. You can apply just about any finish over top of it. Works on boo also.
Barebo, Ipe is at least dark so you can see where to dig when you want to get those splinters out.
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Grunt, yeah - you're right about that !!! I found that it laughs at the rasp, and I was only able to work it by turning my drawknife on edge and using it like a scraper. LOTS of strokes !!! Sure is purty though.....
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On hickory, I use Rit dissolved in alcohol. Then I give it 3 coats of spray spar urethane. I never used paraffin. Jawge