As with any technical field, understanding the terminology of finishing is critical. It’s also critical that we all mean the same thing with the terms we use. With that in mind, here are some of the most common finishing terms, in alphabetical order, and their...
Straining is a topic that we talk a lot about in our Prep to Finish paint training program (preptofinish.com). Conventional wisdom and common sense dictate that straining is a great way to remove contaminants from product while it is still in liquid form. This is...
Making a decision which furniture care product to use or recommend can seem impossibly confusing if you listen to advertising or read labels. But if you separate the products into four categories for what they do, they are understandable, and you can make an...
After a good deal of wear or abuse some areas of a finish may wear through exposing the lighter-colored wood. As long as no stain, glaze or toner is involved, you can usually fix these problems simply by applying more finish on top. The easy test to see if this will...
Old crazed finishes are very fragile. You can reduce potential damage to these finishes with slick furniture polish or paste wax. But as you can see in the picture, liquid furniture polish (left) highlights the crazing and makes it look worse, while paste wax (right)...
Don’t be fooled by the color of a stain just after you remove the lid, especially with water-based stains. With these stains the combination of binder and solvent may be off-white, which is not at all what you are expecting. The pigment will have settled entirely to...
