some wood spirits expirmenting with shoe polish

[ERICSFISHIN]

I have some sticks I carved last week from Oak, Maple and Beech. I have been trying to use polish to bring out some detail but have a lot to learn. I also left a woodspirit narural from a Pine Knot.
I am going to do a search in the forums for using polish.

[dnstehly]

Nice wood spirits. With carvings such as those I would most likely go with the natural wood and finish with successive coats of clear tung oil. (I like formby's satin finish.) If you want color added then I would give it a first coat of a colored tung oil such as Watco dark walnut, and then successive coats of clear. Between coats I rub with #0000 steel wool and repeat until I can't see any difference between one coat and the next. This is particularly good for stabilizing a bark finish.

[Sharon of the Dell]

Nice cravings and I like their expressions.What kind of polish do you use? I don't know a whole lot about finishes, so I enjoy seeing and hearing what others use. I experiment with whatever my husband has in the shed.

[tucker1931]

Eric, those are all fine lookin sticks. Man, you sure pick some hard woods to carve, I think most stick makes use Alder or Poplar, it's a whole lot easier to carve. Never the lass you've got good detail in all od them. Personally, the few sticks I've made, I've just rubbed a coat of stain on them and then about three coats of urethane over that.
Cliff

[Alice in Wonderland]

All those woods are very hard to stain they are sort of dense woods and are easy to blotch. nice faces of your spirits, if you take mineral spirits you may be able to spead the stain of the polish or even take it off?

[Irishman]

Good looking spirits there. Never tried polish before. Mostly use oils and acylic washes. Dark satin liquid wax may be another option. It brings out the detail nicely.
Patrick

[Iowa Carver]

Nice work on the spirits Eric.

Corey