Deardorff refinishing

[dsphotog]

What type of product, color, and brand should I use to refinish my Deardorff V8?

[uphereinmytree]

I just started cleaning up a dorff 8x10. without stripping the wood I'm finding that watco teak oil finish with a drop of red mahogany stain added and a drop of japan drier makes it look new and it dries hard in a few days. A few replacement parts that are NOS unfinished bare wood got 2 coats of red mahogany stain and some teak oil finish to match just right. If you do multiple coats of teak oil, make sure they dry completely between coats. I used spar varnish to 'Build' up dings and impressions in wood. Lots of sanding involved. Small impressions can be swollen by a drop of water, but it will loosen the grain and stain will make those spots alot darker.

[gevalia]

An old trick I used to bring up dings in an old shotgun stock I refinished a few months back was to use an iron. Set it on cotton temp. Place a damn hand towel over ding. Run the hot iron over that area using the edge of the iron or flat underside - on top of the towel of course. This takes patience and a few minutes (like 5 or 10 minutes) and the ding will actually rise and you will need to sand it. This may take a few tines for a deep ding. I hactually had cuts in the stock where someone made 1/16 inch deep cuts with a knife that were 3/4 long. I was able to raise almost all of them. Also, finished with "pure" tung oil - cut the first 2 coats with mineral spirits to get it soaked in deep.