Does the smell of Truoil go away?

[Barry Daniels]

Waddy, that looks great. Well done!

[Waddy Thomson]

Thanks, Barry. The one thing about Tru-Oil is that it will come back and make you pay for your preparation shortcomings. The good thing is that it will let you fix them and build up a finish and it won't show. I have had no issues putting up to 4 or so coats a day, with some buffing back after each coat.

[Kurt Veltman]

Any recommendations for wet sanding Truoil?

[Rodger Knox]

I've used water with just a touch of detergent after several weeks of drying with some sucess, I prefer that over naptha.
Naptha actually works better, but it isn't worth the smell.
I don't wetsand TruOil anymore, I get a better gloss without it, but It might be just the ticket for a matte finish.

[Kurt Veltman]

Thanks Rodger. I'm just trying to keep the paper from loading so quickly. If I get the matte finish I want in the process, that's a bonus.

[Dan Hehnke]

My favorite way to apply true-oil is to give the wood an incredibly good finish to start with, using a very thin flexible scraper, very fine grit sandpaper, and grey 3m synthetic steel wool to make the wood almost shine with no finish. Then I apply maybe 3 coats of true-oil with a very old cotton t-shirt, waiting a half day or so between coats. Maybe a day. It still darkens the wood, feels really nice, and looks great if you don't want a gloss finish.

[Rodger Knox]

+1 on giving the wood a good "finish" before starting. I don't use steel wool, but I do go to 600 or 800 grit sandpaper. I understand that some finishes have adhension issues if the wood is "too smooth", but TruOil doesn't seem to be one of them. It seems to me that sanding curly maple to 800 grit pops the curl about as good as any of the other techniques.

[Kurt Veltman]

I like your ideas Rodger. I might have to try that on my next one. Thanks for all your (and everyone else's) input.

[Doug Polk]

We are talking about the Birchwood & Casey stuff right? About a year ago they did a run that went bad and had a smell somewhat like rotten fish. This has been corrected in newer batches. Maybe you got some of that run?

[Martin Keith]

I did some research into this earlier this year, since I had two Tru-Oil-finished guitars that seemed to be drying poorly.
The smell was lingering for days, and the finish felt gummy much longer than it should have.

A lot of gunstock makers use Tru-Oil, and the common story among them is that the driers in a jar of Tru-Oil will evaporate quickly, and that about a month after the first use, the jar will have lost some of its drying properties. The easy workaround is to use a new jar for each project...after all, it's pretty cheap. Or, it might be possible to add some Japan Drier to replace what has evaporated.

A workaround that many of them have discovered is to pre-treat a surface with Armor-All, which somehow catalyzes the Tru-Oil and causes it to cure very quickly. HOWEVER - Armor-All has silicones in it, and most guitar folks consider putting anything with silicone on a guitar to be a very bad idea.

A friend of mine who does gunstocks swears by the Formby's Tung Oil as a direct replacement, although I haven't tried it.
He says it builds faster and looks smoother...but a gunstock is not a guitar, so I can't say for sure that it's the right choice.

From now on, I'll just go with the fresh jar each time.

Cheers!
Martin

[Waddy Thomson]

Tru Oil dries differently on different woods. If you put it on Rosewood, it'll gum up and stay tacky for days. You can wipe it down with Mineral Spirits and then let it dry, and re-coat. It'll do the same thing until you get it fully sealed. Another option is to use the Birchwood Casey Sealer/Pore Filler, and then apply Tru-Oil over that, or put a seal coat or two of Shellac and then go with the Tru Oil. I have been filling my bottles with Bloxygen after opening, and I decant what I'm going to use into a dropper type bottle and put it on a rag to apply from the bottle. Seems to work very well. The smell does die down after a while, but if you put your nose on it, you can tell it's Tru-Oil. I happen to like the smell.

I have finished two guitars with Tru-Oil. One a Sycamore/Spruce Classical.

And an EIR/Spruce Classical.

The Sycamore was much easier with no pores to fill.