Cherry was long thought of as the poor man’s mahogany and was used as a substitute for mahogany. But as quality mahogany has become harder to get, cherry has become increasing popular and is now widely thought of as a quality wood in its own right. Though cherry has a...
It’s more efficient to use widely available Color Putty or similar product to fill small nail or brad holes in furniture after the sealer coat has been applied than it is to use wood putty before applying the stain and finish. There are three reasons. First, using...
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...
In addition to shellac in dissolved form, which you can find at most paint stores and home centers, shellac is also available in flake form for you to dissolve yourself in denatured alcohol. One of the advantages of dissolving your own shellac is the variety of colors...
Stains lighten as they dry, so you often see instructions to apply a coat of finish to see the true color you will get at the end. This isn’t necessary. You don’t have to let a stain dry and apply a coat or two of finish to see the color a stain will produce on the...
The reason you have to sand wood before applying a finish is to remove machine marks. All machine tools leave cuts or impressions in wood that are highlighted by stains and finishes, especially by stains. Before machine tools appeared in the mid-nineteenth century no...
