For an overview of choosing a finish please refer to “How to Choose a Finish: Part I.” To better understand finishes and their differences, it’s very helpful to put them into categories by the way they cure. You may think the resins—polyurethane, alkyd, acrylic,...
Looking back over our recent articles, we thought we’d celebrate some great ideas, hot tips, and super stories from our Finishing Experts. Read, learn and enjoy! 1.Glen Huey on Shellac: The lack of respect for shellac may be due to the fact that it, a natural resin,...
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...
If you want to remove an old finish in order to put on a new one, it’s almost always better to strip the finish than to sand it off. First, except in cases where the old finish is flaking off, it’s a lot more work to sand than to strip using a paint-and-varnish...
Directions on cans of paint-and-varnish remover instruct to “neutralize” the stripper as a final step. This is misleading and often leads to finishing problems. The instruction is misleading because there is nothing in paint strippers that needs to be neutralized....
Paint and varnish removers sold in plastic containers contain the solvent n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as the active ingredient. This solvent is relatively expensive, so manufacturers often mix in other solvents to reduce the cost. But it’s the NMP that does the...
Alcohol dissolves shellac, and lacquer thinner dissolves lacquer. So you can use these solvents instead of paint-and-varnish remover for stripping. The advantage is that you don’t have to then remove the wax residue or dry off the lingering n-methyl-pyrrolidone...
