Well , it depends on what im working on .
Most time I use boiled linseed diluted with denatured alcohol. Stains will go through as Linseed is only about 10% impervious . You will get a reduction in color so its best to try a test piece first
I do not use oils prior to using fortis though I have been told by at least 1 other builder that he does
?? Again , I don’t
Like you have found though . These oils will not absorb very deep , you will cut through them . So you have to keep applying .
To give you some idea . Here is a flame figured English walnut stock im currently working on . Over all the stock is hard . But its not as hard as burled figure.
I new that prior to starting the carving and since the requested carving was going to be VERY heavy relief , I new I needed to be very careful. AS you can see the grain is rather open . So I used that to my benefit as BL will then penetrate better . Thus helping reduce issues
So I mixed up some diluted BL . Once I had the pattern outlined I used a small brush to paint in the BL to the area . Started my carving . Once I notice that I was feeling issues wanting to happen , I stopped carving . Applied another heavy coat and let that dry before continuing .
This photo is after 5 such coats applied only to the carving area .
Still a lot more work to do im only alittle over 1/2 way done with leveling the back ground , cleaning up the edges and truing the relief .
But in the end ill have clean sharp carving .
then ill apply a coat of Tung which will go deep into the walnut , pop the figure and help protect the edges of the carving .
The deeper penetrating oils like Tung , are more impervious . While they stabilize better , they don’t take a stain well . As such I use Tung on stocks like Walnut which I don’t stain .
DuPont also used to market a wood hardener that while not marketed as such , would take a stain .
But I have not used that for many , many years and have heard that this is no longer true
In the end , some woods , even piece within a good species , are just not suitable for good clean carving. As was also mentioned , you can run into softer areas even in a good hard stock .
So know that there are no fix alls that will make a soft wood hard . All you can do is apply something that will reduce those issues as much as possible .
The rest is up to you , your tools and sometimes just accepting that you must “adjust your fire” so to say .
i see Jim posted while i was .
I cant disagree with him . There simply is no substitute for going slow and careful.
That being said . When I know there may be potential for an issue , Im not afraid to use any and every tool in my arsenal to reduce that potential.
If you notice in the photo I posted there are small chisels I have mad as well as very fine toothed needle files laying on my bench . All those are part of what I use to carve and shape .
Where one tool like say my large gouge , wont work properly either do to being over sized or the wood to thin in the sculpting . I switch to another .
Let the wood tell you what it need . don’t try an tell the wood what you will do with it . IMO doing the last is a recipe for disaster
