[del Otter]

Hello fellow carvers. I did a moose intarsia, about 12 X 16", and I think I put a finish of tongue oil on it. Looked real nice when it was done. The lady that rcvd it put it outside, under a roof, and the weather here in Alaska gets to -30 degrees, and in between the other weather. I got it back and said that it needed to be refinished, parts of the wood turned a whitesh color, I guess it froze and did'nt like it. Other than tearing it all apart, does anyone have a suggestion on how to remedy the wood, put something on it to take the milk colored finish off? I am going to refinish it with min-wax outdoor finish when I get it squared away. thank you Del Otter

[AlArchie]

Del, if you give that finish some time in a dry environment, it just MIGHT take care of itself. That oils has probably absorbed some moistuure as it was outside.

The reason I say this is because I have had a similar milky appearance show up on carvings that I painted with water based acrylics, and put on either a poly or lacquer finish before the paint had fully cured. It was dry so to speak but hadn't fully cured. Anyway, after a couple days in a dry area, the milky look cleared up and the finish was crystal clear.

Don't try to speed up any drying of the oil finish by putting the piece in the sun or worse yet, your sauna. This will force the moisture out as water vapor and blister your surface. Don't even ask how I know that!

You might try putting the piece in a fairly air tight box with a good dose of dessicant from the hardware store.

It's worth a try anyway, and if it doesn't work, maybe someone else has a better idea.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have no idea about the tung oil, but "envirotex" when its been in the sun for a few years will get a white look, and a bit of auto paste wax will bring it back....kind of hate to suggest that to you because if it doesn't work, then you have wax to contend with if you want to put another finish on it. And then sometimes when there is a whitish look to something, a fresh coat of finish will cause it to disappear......too bad you don't have another piece of scrap to experiment on!

[del Otter]

thanks for everybodys input. It wasn't tung oil it was a spray. I used paint remover and it worked.