Finishing Teak Table with Tung Oil

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3
Location
Edmonton AB
Hi all,
Looking forward to getting some of your expert opinions as I am a newbie and at a loss for how to make my table the beauty that I know it can be.

Here's the story: I bought a lovely vintage, Danish-made teak table at ReStore. The finish was slightly shiny and I believe it was oil or wax because of the way it was balling at the edges. Also it would come off when a wet cloth was left on it (oops!).
I took it down to the wood and then did 10 layers of pure tung oil using 0000 steel wool in between. Currently it is dry, very matte looking and feels very grainy. So...Its not exactly where I thought it would be since I had thought 6 layers would be sufficient.

My questions:
What am i doing wrong?
How should the finished table look and feel?
How many layers will it need? More than 10?!

I know that another finish (like varathane) would be sacrilege so I am dedicated to figuring out this tung oil thing. Any advice/opinions would be very welcome as I have scoured the internet and found little.

Thanks!

kate
 
Hi kate and welcome.
When i took a class with sam maloof he showed us 2 finishes. One was a combination pure tung oil boiled linseed oil an wax in equal parts. The second was tung oil linseed and wipe on poly again in equal parts. he said the wax mixture was to soft for table tops and said he used the poly mix. He said he would do two coats per day for 5 days letting the finish dry for two days between coats. I have followed this schedule ever since.
I am sure others will chime in with their favorite finish.
 
Hi Kate and welcome aboard. Glad you found us. I'm not an expert. My few tung oil projects have dried to a smooth satin finish with a couple of days in between coats. Never done more than six coats. Some pictures of your finish might help assess what's going on. What were your expectations? Smooth satin, glossy??
 
Thanks for your comments. What an awesome little community you have on here.

I hope the attachments work.
This is a photo of 'before' - when i first bought it. It had a sheen to it. I am hoping to get back to that finish. The second photo is how it is currently - beautiful wood but matte.
IMG_20140726_100827.jpg
IMG_20141204_041249.jpg
 
Kate,
FWIW, I found this on a manufacturer's site... "Pure Tung Oil's matte finish will do nicely on certain pieces of furniture, but if a glossy finish is preferred you will need to buff and wax the finish....". Sounds like it might work to give you some sheen and wouldn't be harmful to the finish if the result wasn't what you wanted. Also, check out this thread over at SMC on using Abralon pads to polish out a finish. It was used on Waterlox, but point was that the Abralon pads resulted in a nice finish without the danger of rubbing through the finish.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?224558-Flowers-for-Abralon&p=2344293#post2344293
 
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Hi Kate and welcome aboard. Glad you found us. I'm not an expert. My few tung oil projects have dried to a smooth satin finish with a couple of days in between coats. Never done more than six coats. Some pictures of your finish might help assess what's going on. What were your expectations? Smooth satin, glossy??

Sorry for the delay in responding. Apparently newborns require a lot of attention! Ted, what type of project did you do where the tung gave you a satin finish? That's what I'm going for. Also, did you use pure tung, polymerized tung, or did you mix it with anything?
I'm hoping tung can do the job without having to add wax.
 
Sorry totally missed this.

It is much easier to thin the tung 50/50 and a apply 4-5 coats and finial 2 coats 100"% sanding between coats with 400 gr , you need to brush it out. very little will go along way. If it is clouding up on you you will get hazing. It means you putting to much on. Tung oil is a product that I like to put on with a damp rag on thinner and rub in the oil.
 
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