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i have been trying my hand at some rustification on some pipe shaped chunks of oak just to get some practice before i ruin a piece of good briar and im having problems whenever i try to buff and wax it. i always end up with a good bit of wax build up in the deeper parts of the cuts. how do i go about fixing this.

Powder the wax, then sift it on a heated bowl. After it cools, polish the nooks and crannies with a micron grade abrasive Dremel/Fordom wheel:

http://www.ottofrei.com/3M-3-4-Radial-B ... Discs.html

Use a soft wax. I use renaissance wax for my textured pipes. Either that or use a shellac finish for shine although on oak that ain't gonna work.

i know oak is no comparison to briar but i wanted to get a feel the dremel and the way i wanted to go with the texture. i'm trying for a wood bark kind of look and i didnt want to ruin a 15 dollar block of wood when free stuff is laying in a pile beside my shed haha. and thanks both of you... two super simple solutions I never even thought about

I don't know if using an abrasive wheel on a waxed surface makes a lot of sense, by maybe somehow it works...

A method I find to work very well is to use a bristle wheel, non abrasive. You just touch the spinning wheel to a block of carnauba wax, it charges up a little (much less than normal cotton buffs, so you have to recharge it often) and the you pass it on all the grooves. The small amount of wax on the bristle wheel will prevent buidup on the pipe and you can get into those crevices easily. You just work your way around the pipe and you should get a pretty even wax coat. If there's still any buildup or carnauba powder, you just run over the surface with a heat gun/hair dryer, which melts the excess immediately. Then you repeat without charging the wheel with wax, just polish everything up and it's done.

caskwith wrote:Use a soft wax. I use renaissance wax for my textured pipes. Either that or use a shellac finish for shine although on oak that ain't gonna work.

Chris,

How do you use the Renaissance wax?

I am running into the same problem with my rusticated pipes and spray Shellac is not doing it.

Here is the pipe that I want to finish:



I'd like to get it all shiny to bring out the layered colors, but I have hit a wall.

Todd

(I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I just happened to log on tonight to post this question.)

Apply with a brush, let it dry (not too long or it will be hard to polish) then buff out with a soft brush.

Thanks. I will give that a shot.

caskwith wrote:Apply with a brush, let it dry (not too long or it will be hard to polish) then buff out with a soft brush.

Thanks Chris. That helped it a lot.



Todd

That looks good! Did you seal with a spit cost of shellac first? If not try that, really helps boost the shine but doesn't look plasticy.

I use Renaissance wax a lot and use a small horse hair shoe brush to buff it. Works well.
Chas.

I did coat the pipe with shellac first, but I didn't get the shininess I was looking for. It is more of a satin finish, which is OK.

I wonder if I should have thinned down the Febings first. I used it straight.

Todd

taharris wrote:I did coat the pipe with shellac first, but I didn't get the shininess I was looking for. It is more of a satin finish, which is OK.

I wonder if I should have thinned down the Febings first. I used it straight.

Todd

In my experience if you have a textured surface and you want high gloss then the final coat will most likely have to be shellac. Everything I can think of is going to be semi-gloss (or satin if you prefer). Also, the degree of texture will have a lot to do with it. You can wax and buff a light sandblast to a degree but if the surface is really craggy then you'll never get to the bottom of the texture without knocking off the high spots. Highly thinned shellac in an airbrush.
Chas.

I get a pretty good gloss on mine by using a coat of shellac followed by the wax. Its glossy enough to look nice but satin enough to not look like varnish.

You can use thicker or thinner coats of shellac to help control gloss.
Multiple thin coats of shellac work well.

andrew