finishing trouble

[Mike Ballard]

Hi -

I have a piece of wood with a channel cut in it which is about 3/16" deep and 1/16" wide. The problem is that wet-sanding munge (whitish-gray) has collected on the insides of this channel and I'm having trouble getting it out.

There are 4-6 coats of (pure) tung oil/turp and 4-5 coats of wipe-on poly on the surface with much wet-sanding in between coats. I used tung oil/turp to wet-sand and MS (IIRC) after I started applying wipe-on poly.

The channel is about wide enough for a small toothpick to fit inside and when I wrap the tip with a small amount of paper, and douse the paper with mineral spirits, then 'scrub' this channel, the munge 'disappears' but when the MS dries it reappears. I think after many scrubbings I have gotten munge out but not nearly as much as all this effort should have gotten out.

I tried running a razor inside the channel but it's risky (easy to slip out and scar the surface or nick the channel) plus I can't get it to do a very good job. If the MS makes the munge 'disappear' you'd think it was on the surface of the channel and therefore not hard to remove wouldn't you? Anyone know how I can get this crud out?

Mike

[bridger]

I'd grind an appropriate scraper for the job. it'll leave the groove a little larger, but it'll be clean.

[David]

If you get the bulk of junk out of the grooves, but find there is a light-color residue, apply some appropriate dye stain to the groove to color the residue so it "disappears". That's what I did to some pores in a table top that had gotten some grey slurry in them.

David

Mike Ballard wrote:

[Mike Ballard]

Thanks for reminding me - I have a set of powdered earth pigments :-) I used some plastic model black enamel in a couple spots in two small knot holes (same project). And figured as a last resort I'd mix some enamel paint colors for the channel but after I read your message I remembered I have the pigments somewhere. Now I just gotta remember where I put them...

Mike

[David]

Mike, ask your SWMBO, if you've got one. Mine is GREAT at finding stuff; even MY stuff. :)

David

Mike Ballard wrote:

[Mike Ballard]

Tell me about it. I can't tell you how much of 'our' ww stuff ends up in other parts of the house for various craft projects she's got going :-) But try explaining to her why an ebony-handled marking knife really wasn't meant for cutting apart pine cones...

Mike