# How do you handle tacky Danish Oil?



## fissidens (Dec 9, 2014)

I've recently finished an 8ft cherry butcher-block with danish oil for a desk top. On the last coat(3rd) I missed some spots when wiping it clean. Now sections of the surface are very tacky. I sanded it the best I could by hand with 60grit(I started with 120 but it was clogging too fast) to try and get rid of the tackiness but it's still mildly tacky, not as bad as it was, but if press my finger down on the wood it sticks when I pull it up.

My plan was to sand it down with the 60grit then move up to 120, then finally 320 before sparingly adding a final coat of the danish oil. Basically redoing it right.

But now I'm not sure if this will work since the sanded down wood is still tacky. I was thinking I might pick up a power sander and try again to get past the tackiness with 60grit, but I'm not sure if that will work.

The finish dried for 1.5 days before I took the 60grit to it, and it has been a total of about 4.5 days now.

Any advice?

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On a side note, there will be no top coat, the danish oil is it.

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Here's exactly what happened:

After the second coat I was really happy with it except it was a little uneven in spots. So I did a third coat and really flooded it trying to make sure this coat was completely even, waited the 15 minutes as per the Watco instructions, then wiped it clean. I came back the next evening and there were large tacky areas where I'm assuming I didn't wipe it clean enough.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

60 grit paper is too coarse to be sanding between coats. I wouldn't sand with anything coarser than 220 grit. Anyway you shouldn't leave any of the Danish oil on the surface so wipe it off with a clean cloth with a little mineral spirits on it. This will remove what is on the surface and you cal allow it to dry. Once dry you could put more finish on if you like or allow it to dry a couple weeks and wax it.


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## fissidens (Dec 9, 2014)

Agreed about the 60grit. I was using 320 between coats. The 60 grit was used to remove what I had already done so I could start over since I wasn't able to get rid of the tackiness with 320 (or even 120).

I did not intend to leave any danish oil on the surface. I thought I got it all off, but apparently I was mistaken.

Thanks for suggesting mineral spirits, after I sand it down some more with 60grit on a power sander I will try using mineral spirits to get rid of any remaining tackiness.


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## fissidens (Dec 9, 2014)

Alright, I'm back in business. It took about 3 hours of sanding, but I sanded away all the tacky bits with 60grit on a power "finishing" sander and brought it back up to a nice smooth surface with the 120 then 320 by hand. Then I liberally applied a coat of the danish oil by soaking the rag and then wiping it on instead of flooding the surface as the instructions suggested. When I was done applying the coat I wiped as much oil off as I could with a clean dry rag.

I think I'll do two more coats like this sanding in between with the 320. I should be in good shape after that.


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