You often see cans of solvent finishes such as varnish, polyurethane and lacquer with instructions not to thin them. Manufacturers include these instructions in order to comply with VOC laws in some areas of the country. Adding thinner could take the finish out of...
Back in the 1970s and 80s, it was common to see explanations of the difference between Danish oil and wiping varnish described as that between oil and resin-fortified oil. I couldn’t make sense of this explanation because the term “resin” is so vague. It commonly...
If you’ve ever used a paint roller to apply latex paint to walls and not covered your furniture and other items well enough, you may have noticed that the roller shed tiny drops of paint that dried wherever they landed. Close inspection reveals tiny paint specks...
Pro finishing shops maintain tight controls. Temperature, humidity, finish viscosity, air pressure, fluid volume, spray patterns – it’s a lot of factors that have to work together to produce the perfect finish, and measurement and control are the only ways to ensure a...
One of the biggest problems for beginners is knowing how much to sand to remove all the marks created by jointers and planers. Here’s a trick you can use to indicate when you have sanded enough. Draw some pencil marks on the wood, then sand until these marks are...
Recently, I was involved in a “Woodworking Throw-Down” on the Lumberjocks.com forums. In just a few days, I needed to create a table-top box to store remote controls and ‘stuff’ in. So I pondered on it a bit, then settled on a “Bombe” style, with a contemporary flair,...
Furniture that needs refinishing often needs some regluing or wood repair. It’s almost always best to do all the regluing, parts repair and parts replacements before doing the stripping. This is so that any glue seepage or damage you might cause happens on top of the...
Other than arranging the object or objects you’re photographing in an attractive manner, the most important requirement for achieving good photographs is getting the camera adjusted to the ambient light. This used to be a really big problem back in the film days, but...
If you are applying paste wax as a polish on top of a finish, you will always get a little better result with two coats. Let the first coat dry for at least a couple of hours, or overnight, before applying the second. You would think that one coat should be...
Finishes deteriorate as they age. First they dull, then they begin to craze and crack. Over a very long time, finishes deteriorate because of contact with oxygen, called “oxidation.” But bright UV light (especially sunlight and fluorescent light) accelerates the...
