My first board refinish - surprisingly quick and simple.

I bought this "vintage" veneered board a few months ago to fit large pieces (63 mm squares). There was some raised grain in places, so I sanded it back and paste-waxed the whole board as a quick, low-effort fix. That flattened everything nicely and nothing popped up since (the veneer is stable), but the rubbed down grain still showed. I didn't think to take a "before shot", but here's an older snap that shows the white lines on some black squares.

This morning, I decided I didn't want to see those lines any more and set about a full strip back and refinish - my first attempt.

It turned out far easier and way quicker to do than I expected! Just 90 minutes later I had the old finish stripped off (wire wool and turpentine), everything sanded at 80, 120, 240 and 400 grit (without going through veneer) and the 1st coat of tung oil on. Job done - nearly.

Oil already dry enough to try it out too.

Just the patience part left now. Waiting at least 24-hours, preferably 48-hours, between applications of tung oil is the most difficult part IMO! Is it dry yet? Is it dry yet?

Talking of which, is there any way to actually test if tung oil is cured, rather than just waiting, guessing and hoping?

Edit - to avoid confusion: I know drying (a day or two) is not the same as curing (days, weeks or months depending on conditions). Cheers.

Beautiful! Looks like a fine job so far. This might be a helpful link addressing your question: https://woodworkingclarity.com/how-long-does-tung-oil-take-to-dry/

Nice job! Looks awesome...

Well done, Sir!

Many craftsmen will tell you that one of their very best tools is patience!  

 Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! I think the trickiest part of refinishing a veneer is not knowing how thin it might be to begin with. Anyone know where I can get one of those “patience tools” @GrandPatzerDave heard about?

Gorgeous! Nice job, for me knowing when to stop sanding caught me. I burnt a few in my attempts. Your came out perfect

Question, did you sand by hand or with a sander?

Every time I think of refinishing a veneer board I imagine this happening:

Thanks for your kind comments all.

@Putz2022 - thanks for the link, I hadn't found that one. A few interesting snippets there. I (finally) found one direct answer to "when is tung oil cured" in a passing reference somewhere, but I didn't note the link. Answer was, when the wood no longer smells of tung oil at all. Not even a hint of it. Hmmm. We'll see...

@Wits-end - luckily for me, there is a very small chip out of the edging veneer on one corner. It *just* shows the underlying substrate so I was able to measure the veneer thickness there. About 0.45mm left. Of course, that didn't mean it was that thick all over, but it encouraged me to proceed "without fear" Parts of the walnut grain on some squares did look like a rub-through now and again though - so there were a couple of "oh no" moments followed by relief on closer inspection.

@stumOnner: I used an orbital sander for 80, 120 and 240 grits, with most of the flattening being done at 80 and uniform smoothing with the others. I did the 400 grit by hand on a block, just to get the last few sleeks out.

Good job! It looks great! I’m with the Doc. I am not handy with tools. I usually start out slow and then get impatient. It never turns out well.

Nice. Your board looks smoother than boards from some Etsy woodworkers! Hah! Fine sanding and finishing is time consuming and tedious but it clearly shows in the outcome. Without a side by side, before/after photo, I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the oil darkened the board a bit. You knew this beforehand and was expecting it, right?

Thanks. To be honest, I was very much helped by the board starting out pretty flat overall (apart from those raised grains). There were a few shallow hollows, probably from spot sanding when the board was made, but the 80-grit soon brought the rest of the surface down level with them, and then they were gone!

Yes, I wanted it darker but I wasn't sure if it had been oiled already. I didn't expect there to be much change if it had. Turns out, sanding revealed totally bare wood and I got a noticeably different tone from the tung oil. I'm well pleased with it - darker AND warmer. Still more to come with additional coats of tung oil, but I expect each to be a less striking change than the previous one from here on. 

Despite the protracted schedule for applying it, I still like this tung oil stuff a lot. There is some compensation in that you can actually use the board immediately after each oiling and long before it's completed! Providing you don't spill anything on the board until after the oil properly cures (and even then...). It looks really good and already "finished" from the very first coat (as pictured in the OP, and that was only 50/50 oil/turpentine).

That at least makes the waiting bearable, and patience much easier to muster