OSMO Hardwax problems

[benstoneham]

Merry Christmas!

Having spent a huge amount of time and effort sanding back the floor (old pine boards) I applied 2 coats of OSMO hardwax oil stain (Antique Oak), taking care to leave each section 20 mins before rubbing off with a cloth in the direction of the grain..

It was worth the effort, the floor looked amazing.. dark (almost walnut) and consistent across the entire surface (big room of 40m2)..

A week later I then went to apply the Polyx Oil top coat, which I did with a white scotch pad using a numatic floor polisher..

Having spent so much time on the first part of this job, I was keen to get it finished and started this work late in the day.. predictably I ran out of time and ended up with several areas that I had missed which had swirl marks from where the oil hadn't been thoroughly worked in/ wiped off.

When I came back to it, these were obvious (right in the spot where the light bounces off the floor). reading around, the only solution seemed to be to sand back lightly and then re-apply with Polyx.

Using the floor polisher again, I tried several different pads, but only the Black pad was up to the job.. the trouble was that in addition to removing the excess Polyx, it also lightened the floor (taking the stain up).. leaving me with a very patchy floor.

I thought that I would just be able to re-stain those areas with the hardwax oil.. but depressingly I am have found that the stain doesn't seem to take

Presumably this is because the polyx oil is doing its job and has impregnated the wood..

What are my options? Am I going to have to sand the whole thing back to bare wood and start from scratch? or does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[WoodYouLike]

It's not the oil in the HWO that's preventing the stain to take hold again, it's the wax in the HWO.
You could try to use wax-remover - with the black pad - then take up the removed wax and apply the hwo again.

But be aware that without resanding you might again end up with patchy areas.

 

[benstoneham]

Thank WYL... you obviously know a lot about this stuff and that makes perfect sense.

Given that I was resigned to starting from scratch anyway (and it shouldn't need that much taking off to get it back to bare wood I guess), I've got nothing to loose, so I'll buy some wax remover and try it out.

Out of interests, when I come to re-apply the hardwax, is it worth trying the floor polisher again to rub in (with white pad) before clothing it off by hand in the direction of the grain (before I just painted it on).

 

[WoodYouLike]

A white pad you should only use with a maintenance product like wax polish, not with oil. The risk is that when you rest the buffer just for a little while the fluffy stuff of the white pad could be left on the floor (happened to us )
Use a medium course pad after applying the HWO, that works better

 

[benstoneham]

Medium - is Red enough?

How would you normally apply the HWO? brush on and then buff in using the coarse pad, leave 20 mins and then wipe off in direction of grain?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Every brand of buffing pads seem to have their own colour coding, so could be tan too.

We use a professional HWO applicator (gripper with rectangle sponges) and divide the floor in "sections". You can brush it on - or use sponges - and make sure it is applied as thinly as possible. Then we go over it with a buffing-machine and tan pad, spreading out the HWO more evenly and even over untreated areas. When this is done on one section we apply HWO on the next section etc.
That's all really. After the coat has dried we apply the second coat in the same way.

 

[AmosHertzman]

It's not the oil in the HWO that's preventing the stain to take hold again, it's the wax in the HWO.
You could try to use wax-remover - with the black pad - then take up the removed wax and apply the hwo again.

But be aware that without resanding you might again end up with patchy areas.

We're in a similar predicament, except that we used the OSMO HS One Coat Stain (walnut) instead of the Wood Wax Stain. We accidentally over-applied the first coat of HWO after the stain and have tried to lightly sand some off, but stain came off with it. We are working with reclaimed fir.

we have a few questions:
1) we know that we over-applied, but we also are worried that the stain itself repelled the HWO. We didn't wipe it off as we now think we were supposed to do. Are these two products incompatible?
2) what is the best method for sanding? We've waited a long time to ensure it's dry but it still clogs sandpaper within one or two passes.
3) The floor is going to be too light now we're sanding, but we're worried about reapplying the stain. partly because of point 1) but also because of how it should be applied. we did try wiping off at first but it took ALL the stain off except on the long grains - i guess it was sitting on top of the wood rather than penetrating? We're using OSMO brushes to apply the stain and the HWO.
4) We're using a square buffer to sand, what should we use to do the edging?

thanks so much for your help. we're in a bit of a bind with no place to live and have made some decisions without enough time or thought and under stress.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Best place to ask in you case would be here / supplier in Canada - they can advice you best and might have the right tools/products at hand

 

[AmosHertzman]

Best place to ask in you case would be here / supplier in Canada - they can advice you best and might have the right tools/products at hand

Unfortunately it was the supplier who told us to use that particular stain. I guess I could write to the other supplier for help, but funnily enough our only other conversation was to not buy their reclaimed fir LOL. Maybe they won't remember us.
thanks!