I made a grip out of Cocobolo and then I sprayed with Heleman urethane and for some reason I cant get the urethane to dry, it's still tacky after 2 days. I cant seem to figure this out any ideas?? T

Thanks Dave

Cocobolo is VERY oily.. lots of resin in it... Tom K. has an article in one of the issues of Rodmaker magazine on how to treat the wood before any finish is applied. Maybe contact him, or run a search on this board.

soak it in denatured alcohol before applying finish. i had the same problem and tom advised this and it worked great.

You haven't been reading Rodmaker!

You cannot apply finish to cocobolo and expect it to dry. Most others woods in the rosewood family are the same way.

Drop your next piece of cocobolo into a bath of solvent alcohol and let it sit for about an hour. Then remove it and do it again with fresh alcohol. Remove and let dry for 24 hours. Then you can finish it with whatever you want.

Dave:

Teak oil (not tung oil) is the classic finish for oily tropical woods. No solvent tricks necessary. This is based on what I've read -- I haven't tried it.

--Rich

Dave,
You really do not need to use any finish on cocobolo.
All that is required is to polish the wood.
The natural resins will ensure that the wood is resistant to water.
The trade off with the solvent approach is loss of colour, which may or may not be desired.
Personally I am not a fan of plastic finishes on wood (varnish, epoxies etc.)
Eden

Cocobolo will take 2 finishes without solvent prep.

One or 2 coats of Teak oil works very well for a semi-gloss finish.

The other is CA (or superglue). It has been used as a finish for years. It create a deep finish and polishes to great shine. There are several sources on then Internet about applying CA as a finish.

I have used both products on Cocobolo many times and they both work very well.

Christian

Sorry about the email addy. Any loss of color will come back with the addition of finish. Most of it anyway. I used to never put finish on cocobolo but it was so dark to start with and faded even darker that you lost all the figure in it. So now I always use the solvent bath which brightens it up quite a bit. The finish darkens it back down but not quite back to where it was. I think it just looks brighter and has more contrast that way. I use Tru-Oil on it. About 2 or 3 coats.

I soaked the Cocobolo in alchol for an hour and I will never do that again it took all the color out.. Next time I will just polish as is.. Thanks Dave

As explained in the magazine, the color will come back into it when you finish it. What you lost was the resin, which provides much of the darkness to the color. What you ended up with was the wood in its natural color. The additional of almost any type of finish will restore most of the original darkness to the wood. And remember, cocobolo, like most woods, will darken even further after a few weeks in natural light.

............

Well the alcohol didnt work, and no Teak oil around so I will use an impregnation solution.. Thanks Dave

The alcohol will certainly work. I've done this on all types of woods but you do have to soak it long enough and do the re-bath with fresh alcohol at least once.