So is this somewhat of a good procedure to follow -
Posted by DanceswithBeers over at HTGUIDE
For any oil finish, you'd follow the same steps basically:
1. Sand the entire project up through 320-400 grit.
2. Fill the grain if you want a perfectly smooth surface***
3. Apply the the oil-based finish liberally to the surface with a clean, lint free cloth, application sponge, or brush.
4. Wait about 5 minutes for it to soak in and wipe up the excess (this wait time varies depending on the product).
5. Wait 24 hours.
6. Repeat 3-5.
7. Wait 24 hours.
8. Sand with 400 grit.
9. Apply another coat and wipe off (when I wipe off, I typically just wipe with a t-shirt using one piece of it. I'm not wiping off every bit of finish, but more smoothing it out and wiping up enough excess to avoid any runs).
10. Repeat steps 7-9 until the finish starts building to the surface.
Once the finish is nearing the surface, I will typically start with finer sandpaper and then steel wool between coats. When it starts looking how I want it, after dry, I buff with 0000 steel wool and apply one more very light coat.
Your time to finish will differ depending on the wood type. For a smooth, closed grain wood like maple, you don't need much. For something like mahogany and walnut, the wood will soak up more of the oil. The general finishes tend to build up faster, more like poly. With the Danish oil, the build up was really slow. I prefer a lot of thin coats in general.
