There are a couple of good tests you can perform to see if a finish you are using bonds well to whatever is underneath—oily wood, stain, filler glaze or whatever. The better test is called the “cross-hatch” test. Using a razor blade or box cutter score the finish (on...
If you want to use an oil stain and apply a water-based finish over it, the best practice is to let the oil stain dry thoroughly before applying the finish—for at least several days and maybe a week in a warm room. Oil stains vary in how fast they dry, so the only way...
Shellac has a bad reputation for water marking, but it’s actually impossible to water mark a shellac finish, except with very hot water, unless the shellac used for the finish is old when the shellac is applied, or the shellac on the wood has aged considerably. As...
Coloring wood usually presents the biggest challenge in the wood finishing process because more can go wrong. By organizing and defining the major differences in the woods, the various types of products used to color wood and the application methods, you can see the...
Pouring The trick to pouring solvent from a full or nearly full can without getting the liquid all over the place is to hold the can with the spout near the top rather than the bottom. With the spout near the top of the can, air can enter easily to fill the void left...
You shouldn’t finish the inside of a cedar chest. Leave it totally unfinished. The reasons are, first, you don’t want to seal in the cedar aroma that protects against moths, and second, the cedar fumes will destroy (soften to the point of stickiness) most finishes. If...
Wiping varnish is a term I coined about 20 years ago to categorize (so we could understand what we were dealing with) a number of finishes that were each represented by manufacturers as unique, when in reality they were all simply oil-based varnish or polyurethane...
Wiping varnish is a term I coined about 20 years ago to categorize (so we could understand what we were dealing with) a number of finishes that were each represented by manufacturers as unique, when in reality they were all simply oil-based varnish or polyurethane...
Lacquer thinner is the solvent and thinner used with all types of lacquer, including nitrocellulose, CAB-acrylic and catalyzed. It’s the most interesting of the finish solvents because it’s composed of half-a-dozen or so individual solvents. Manufacturers vary these...
Solvents are difficult to understand because they all look alike in the can. One way to make sense of them is simply to learn what each does (see Understanding Solvents, Part I). A more sophisticated and very helpful method for understanding solvents is to organize...
