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I was wondering what kind of finishes are used on Isla congas or Ritmo congas.Was thinking of using a water base polycrylic on my congas. Any help would be great. Thank's.

I really like the Watco Danish Oil for congas. It is easy to apply and
easy to repair and gives a great oiled finish to the wood.

Islas have a stain and then a urethane coat applied over that.

purely subjective my friend. A lot of people love the Danish oils, Some like dull not shiny, Some like thick shiny finishes. I personally prefer the polyurethane finishes for the protection they offer. Poly is not as easily repaired as the Danish oil but I feel it protects the drum a little more from the potential of really deep gouges. Some are going to disagree with this but like I said at the beginning it is subjective. Polyurethane can be bought in oil or water based and satin or gloss it offers some different choices. The Danish oils do offer a beautiful finish that cannot be ignored and in my opinion is more beautiful than poly. Theres my last post for the month don't want to get anybody mad by being too busy on here later!

Depends where you live. In NYC, although I greatly prefer the Watco oil finish for reasons given in the previous posts, by itself it does not give adequate protection against the annual humid/dry cycles caused by indoor heating / drying in the winter and the very humid summers. Both of my Skin on Skin oak drums finished only with Watco cracked in multiple places within the first 3 years I had them. Jay Bereck fixed them no problem. That was 25 years ago. I refinished one with satin polyurethane over the Watco, it looks almost as nice as the bare Watco, and it hasn't cracked since. The other one is still bare Watco finish, which is very easy to touch up, but the glue between some of the staves has dried out and I think it is due to the humidity changes and not having a sealed polyurethane coating on the outside. I would never put any finish on the inside wood, I don't like the plastic-y ringing sound it gives.

In Southern California, you don't have the humid / dry cycling of colder climates, so you can probably get away with bare Watco. Even so, putting a few coats of polyurethane over the Watco looks almost as nice and seals the wood, although it negates the easy touchup feature of oil finished wood.

Thank's guy's: I like the finish with the danish oil but i do want to protect the shell's. There Junior Triado conga's i just want to protect those guy's from being damage in any way. Are the Isla's a shiny finish or satin? Thank's so much for the information.Frankie.

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Nice! I can see how the grain just pop's out. I think im going to just both, thank's so much. Frankie.

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Hey SalseroBoricua71: Did you strip the whole drum down when you did that finish? Even the band's. Thank's Frankie.

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Just curious as to why the bands made the project so difficult?
I thought you would just remove them clean/refinish them and then reinstall them.

Beautiful work ,who says its not a perfect world?

Dangler: Congas with band's are or should be tight on the drum. To take them off and put them back on you can easily scratch the new finish on the drum, also you have to center the middle one's on.Frankie

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As I'm getting ready to finish repairing my Valje that cracked, I'm really appreciating the
fact that I finished it with the Watco and not with a urethane coat. It's true the urethane
coat provides more protection, it is a more durable coating, but a drum can still get scratched,
dented or cracked with a urethane coat.

Now that my drum is finished being glued, all I have to do now is sand the excess glue off and
wipe on another coat of Watco. That's why I picked the Watco, ease of repair.

I've got drums with nice urethane coats too. This drum with Watco I knew was going to get a lot
of use so I wanted a finish that was as easy to use as the Watco. For me and for this drum it was
definitely the right choice.

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