Hi all,
A floor finishing question.
I am working on a Boston brownstone renovation, and the discount flooring that we originally thought were a mix of mahogany and black walnut turns out to have a large proportion of african ironwood. We tried to finish it with tung oil, but the oil kept pooling and giving us a spotty finish rather than being absorbed.
Any recommendations on what to try to give a relatively period finish? It’s an 1880’s brownstone bldg.
Many thanks,
Constantine
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Replies
While I can't help you, you might be better informat if you had a spieces or trade name for the wood.
Ironwood is a very generic name for any very dense wood, there are 100's of different ironwoods.
One common one today is IPE, but that is from SA and not affrica.
Likewise tung oil is a very specific oil, but not really suited for flooring unless you want to want for months before using it.
More likely you are using a tung oil FINISH which is just a marketing term and varies alot from manufacture to manufacture.
I'm far from an expert on the subject. However, I did have great luck using Sutherland Welles tung oil products on some Ipe. As Bill already eluded, Ipe and other "Iron Wood" species are particularly dense and thus difficult to penetrate with an oil finish. The SW polymerized tung oil finish dried fairly quick (for tung oil) and really penetrated well.
Maybe you can order a small sample of what ever they recommend and finish a cut off or small piece first?
The folks at Sutherland Welles were quite helpful so give them a shout.
http://www.sutherlandwelles.com/
Edited 1/18/2006 12:06 pm by pino
Thank you both for the quick responses & the good leads.
And it turns out the wood is, as you guessed, South African ironwood, or ipe.
If the floor gets a thorough sanding from a professional, do either of you anticipate any problems using a poly finish on it?
I will check out Sutherland & see about any further information.
Best and thanks again,
Constantine
I believe that IPE is South American, not Affrican.You might need to wipe it with acetone or similar for a regular varnish to work.On deck there are some oils that are made just for it.Penofin has one - look for Tropcia or exotic in the name.Don't know how they would work inside.You might ask over at a wood flooring forum, because I have heard of IPE being used inside before.Can't think of the name, but there is a guy from FL that is on here from tiem to time that has forum (and also sell floor, I think including IPE, but not sure) and should have good info.
Edited 1/18/2006 1:39 pm by BillHartmann
Again, I'm just an HO that happened to use Ipe so am by no means an expert on this. I did help a friend put down an Ipe front porch using Penofin as the finish. I recall it turned the Ipe a bit towards the reddish side, not necessarily a problem but more of an observation. That said, I don't recall which label of Penofin product we used and I believe there are many, as Bill indicated.As always do a test on a scrap piece first.Good luck. And post some pics when you're finished. I'd love to see an interior application using Ipe.