# best finish for black walnut trim



## tahoewood (May 5, 2014)

Dear Expert Wood Finishers,
We have installed new black walnut trim sills and trim around doors. Now we are trying to find the absolute best way to finish it. 

We did a bunch of different samples, and the one which looked best to me was TUNG OIL only. We tried some samples with laquer over various stains and they ended up looking a little too shiny. I want to keep the wood looking as natural as possible.

Here are my questions:
1. is TUNG OIL without laquer sufficient in terms of protecting the wood?

2. does the specific TUNG OIL brand matter? If it does, which one is the AAA+ one? "
"Real Milk Paint Pure Tung Oil" any good? something better?


3. any better/different ideas to keep the wood looking natural, but bring out the grain as much as possible?

Picture attached, thank you all for your advice.


----------



## CNYWOODS (Apr 22, 2012)

Tung oil could work. But at that it is a lot of work to do it properly. Multiple coats, finer sanding and lots of dry time. The protection would be ok if your not expecting abuse, rain intrusion thru windows on a windy day. 

Personally I would want more protection. What kind of lacquer did you try? You can get lacquer in a dull sheen. You could do 1 coat of tung oil... Let it completely dry and topcoat with a solvent lacquer.

A wipe on poly or brush on poly in a dull sheen would work.

Good thing is you do have options and depending on if you can spray you have more.


----------



## Quickstep (Apr 10, 2012)

There are finishes called "Tung Oil Finish" which probably may contain Tung Oil, but may also contain many other things; they're different from Pure Tung Oil which can take a very long time to dry. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just pointing out the differences. As to whether or not tung oil alone will hold up, that's a definite maybe. If you forget to close a window and the sill gets wet and is allowed to stay wet, almost no finish will survive that, but Tung Oil alone won't provide as much protection as a film building finish. Waterlox is a finish that is based on Tung Oil but also contains resins like varnish. I like it. If you use Waterlox "Original", you can simply apply coats until you like the level of gloss you like. A single coat will provide almost no gloss (but less protection too) additional coats will provide additional gloss. As I said, you just stop applying coats when you see what you like. As always, test on scrap first.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The pure tung oil would make a better finish. Originally it was used for hulls of boats. Just keep in mind that pure tung oil is a very slow drying finish and might takes as much as a week to dry between coats. The best way to tell if a coat of it is dry enough for another coat is to briskly rub the finish with a clean dry cloth and see if the tung oil smell rubs off onto the rag. When there is no smell transfer the finish is ready. You check the tung oil finish the same way only it should dry overnight. 

To keep it looking as natural as possible don't put too many coats on. Eventually it would start looking glossy like the lacquer.


----------



## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

tahoewood said:


> Dear Expert Wood Finishers,
> We have installed new black walnut trim sills and trim around doors. Now we are trying to find the absolute best way to finish it.


Tahoe Wood
I like Watco Danish Oil on walnut. I prefer it over Tung Oil. 
It's readily available at most good hardware stores. 
It will give Walnut a beautiful natural finish. It is durable and can easily be touched-up when needed. 
Good luck.


----------



## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

I cant imagine that tung oil would add much protection to the wood, beyond basic water-resistance. Personally, for trim around windows and doors, which i can see easily getting abused, id want something more durable. Have you tried a matte or semi-gloss lacquer? Either of those should protect a bit better without being too horribly shiny


----------



## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

No input other than to help understand the nature of sills(Epic's post),windows AND doors for that matter.Stair nosers get beat up......."landing nosers",especially stock(narow'ish) live possibly the hardest life of any of these elements.

Window sills won't get the traffic,but thats more than made up with moisture and UV.Good luck on your project and thanks for posting up the pics.It really cuts right to the chase on threads.BW


----------



## tahoewood (May 5, 2014)

Thank you all very much for sharing all your wisdom with me, I appreciate the great advice! You guys are the best.

Have any of you used RUBIO MONOCOAT? Please let me know if you think that is good stuff, someone recommended, I am thinking of using on the floors, could be possible for window sills too... although based on what you advised me above, it may not offer sufficient protection.


----------

