Finishing Koa — "Many Different Ways."

Joslyn has sanded the sample to 180 grit, and it is time to do some further finishing.
	We will be using the Menzerna buffing out process. I have been using this for a couple of years now, and it is wonderful.    Normally, we would coat the surface with a shellac, varnish or polyurethane finish. When that is cured, we would use the Menzerna process.    We may do that with this sample, but right now we will just do it on the raw wood.    As you can see in the picture, the process has three buffing compounds and the liquid polish. It is an auto body method that works as well with wood.
Joslyn has switched back to the Rotex 150 since the buffing pads I have in the Menzerna kit are for this larger machine. The Festool Rotex 125 could easily be set up to do the same buffing/polishing process.    She sands using 220 to 440 grit. These are very fine papers and do a great job at making the surface super smooth.
	Joslyn has added a few drops of water to the compound surface and mixes a bit of slurry. She then spreads this over the wood sample.
She then buffs the wood sample working the compound on the surface. No pressure is required — we simply let the weight of the Rotex do the work.    If you look the picture above, I have set in place one buffing pad for each of the compounds. The grey discs are Platin 400 and 600 mesh screens for the number 1 and 2 compounds, respectively. I then use a hard felt pad for the number 3 compound. The liquid polish (4) is used with a soft felt pad, followed at the very last by a lambs wool buffing pad.    These are combinations that I have worked out and they seem to work well. I am sure that any number of other pads/discs could be used.    The Menzerna products that you see cost about $53 total. I have used them for several years, and I have barely used any at all. They will last a long time and can be "reconstituted" by adding water and stirring up the top surface.
	Joslyn uses a soft cloth wipe to remove any spatter from the surface. You can see the nice gleam of the surface. It is a slick finish, but can get even greater by adding a coating, letting that coating cure and then going through the buffing out steps again.    That we will do next time we get together.
Waiting for the correct time for curing and drying is not my strong suit. Joslyn and I "had" to see what an oil penetrating finish would do to our buffed out finish.    She uses a disposable pad to apply the oil.
	I felt that the oil she was applying was sitting on top of the buffed out surface, so I gave her some 1500 grit wet/dry paper and she used that to rub in the oil.
This is the final picture for this whole sequence. The bright reflection in the foreground is of the overhead fluorescents which I purposely left on. It is a nice finish — better than what we had, but we will get way more of a mirror polish in weeks to come. It is great wood to practice on.