Drying Rack For Knobs
In my shop, knobs wet with finish used to be accidents waiting to happen. They'd always end up on the floor. Then I discovered hidden value in a length of triangular scrap With their fastening screws as counterweights, knobs rest on it securely. Don't let small surface checks keep you from using an otherwise good board. Got a minute You can make those checks disappear. Squeeze cyanoacrylate (CA) glue into the crack. CA glue works better than yellow glue because it dries very quickly. Any brand...
Flat Sheen
Switch to a fine synthetic abrasive wool (0000 steel wool equivalent) to bring the finish to a satin sheen. dust the way a flat, horizontal top docs. A light bulling with steel wool will clean the occasional dust nib on vertical surfaces. 5. Sand with 320- to 400-grit stearated paper between coats, depending on how smooth the coat looks. Use a sanding block to level ridges and bumps. With a gloss finish, coarser paper may leave scratches that are visible through subsequent layers of poly. 6....
Natural Bristle
An exterior oil finish is definitely the simp est, quickest way to treat an outdoor project. On the downside, it will only give you about a year of protection from the ravages of outdoor life Oil finishes don't provide a protective film that sits on top of the wood like varnish does. Instead, oil soaks into the wood fibers and dries. Exterior oils have added trans-oxide pigments for UV protection and mildewcides to protect against mold and mildew. You'll find colors ranging from dark brown to...
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Anyone can learn to do it well. The objective is no more complicated than transferring a liquid varnish from a can to the wood. Natural-bristle brushes are made from animal hair. They are the best brushes for use with all stains and finishes except those that contain water. Water softens natural bristles just as it softens human hair, causing the bristles to lose their stiffness and their shape. The best commonly available natural-bristle brushes are made from...
Woodworkers
Join Mitch Kohanek as he demonstrates trade secrets of fine finishing at a location near you. 9 00-12 00 The Stonegate Conference Center 2401 West Higgins Rd. Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 (847) 884-7000 9 00-12 00 Long Beach City College, Pacific Coast Campus Room MM118 1305 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. Long Beach, CA 90806 (562) 938-3064 9 00-12 00 The Enterprise Center at Burlington County College 3331 Route 38 Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 (856) 222-2500 Mitch Kohanek has been an instructor for the National...
Ebonize With
Ebonizing wood isn't as easy as it seems. Black dyes usually leave a bluish or greenish cast, oil stains look washed out and paint obscures the grain. But a good India ink. which is really a very finely ground pigment, does the job. It's available as a fast-drying waterborne liquid at art supply stores Black Cat Waterproof India Ink, Dick Blick Art Materials, 800-933-2542, www.dickblick.com, 21101-2006 7.50 pint . As with any waterborne finish, raise the grain before you apply the ink. Dampen...
Sapwood
It's not always practical to cut off all of the sapwood. If you can't remove all of the sapwood, hide it on the underside or turn it to the inside whenever yoti can. You can disguise sapwood with pigments or dye, although these cover-ups look best when they're fresh, because cherry's color changes. And while pigments retain their color over time, dyes usually fade. If you color sapwood with dye, it'll gradually get lighter while the surrounding heartwood gets darker. Matching the sapwood with...
How To Minimize Blotchyness In Cherry
APPLYING WOOD STAIN prevent blotching The most common and frustrating staining problem is blotching. Blotching is uneven coloring in woods that have uneven grain or grain that varies in density Photo gt . There is no way to remove blotching except to sand, scrape, or plane below the depth the stain has penetrated. Slain can't be totally stripped out of the wood. Blotching is most likely to he a problem with fir and pine, among the softwoods and poplar, aspen, birch, and cherry, among the...
Warm The Look Of Waterborne Polyurethane
Waterborne polyurethane finishes often make wood look parched at right, top . Because they don't change the wood's color the way oil-based finishes do, the wood still looks raw. Tinting waterborne poly with amber-colored dye adds the warm color that's missing at right, bottom . It's easy. You can use either water- or alcohol-based dye The dye is available as a dry powder or pre-mixed. If you choose the powder, mix it with water or alcohol following the instructions on the package. Add a...
Chlorine Bleach
Common household laundry bleach sodium hypochlorite will kill mildew on your deck and outdoor furniture, and will remove clye-based stain Irom wood, but not pigment-based stain. Chlorine bleach can irritate skin and mucous membranes, so wear gloves and goggles. Deck cleaner. To remove mildew from your deck or exterior furniture, first hose off the wood to remove any loose debris. Mix about a quart of chlorine bleach Clorox, Purex, etc. to each gallon of water. Use a synthetic-bristle brush and...
Dyed Walnut
YVaterborne varnishes and lacquer have no inherent color, so they're often used on light-colored woods, such as maple, to avoid the amber tone added by traditional shellac and varnish finishes. On the other hand, darker woods, such as walnut, look better with traditional finishes because their amber tone amplifies the wood's rich, dark color. If you plan on using a waterborne polyurethane or lacquer finish, consider warming up the walnut first, with a coat of dye. On the sample shown here, the...
Clear
Maple and birch turn yellow cherry turns reddish brown. You can easily imitate aged color on these and other close-pored woods by starting with clear gel stain or gel varnish The surfaces of these woods are covered with legions of tiny pores that are almost invisible Staining the raw wood turns them dark. To an experienced eye, the tiny dark spots are a giveaway on naturally aged maple, birch or cherry, they wouldn't show. Here's how to complete the process...
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Discover Our Special Trial Size Packets Today. Now Varathane has made finding the right stain color easy. Introducing new Varathane trial size packets, created to give you the confidence to find the right color time. These inexpensive and easy-to-use packets are available in all 24 colors. Each packet contains enough stain for you to test any color on your project, so you're always sure to find exactly the right stain color. Visit www.woodanswers.com for more information. Varathane -Wood's...
Liquid Oil Stain On Hard Maple
Gel stain doesn't soak into wood the way liquid oil stain does it stays near the surface, like paint. This is important to remember when you stain unevenly porous woods, such as maple, birch, pine and cherry. These woods contain randomly located pockets of super-absorbent grain that are virtually invisible until you stain Liquid oil stain makes these woods look biotchy and unattractive. Gel stain colors them much more evenly. Both samples pictured above have one coat of walnut-colored stain...
Tinted Waterborne Over Shellac Seal Coat
Improve the look of waterborne poly on dark wood quickly and easily. Warm the wood's appearance by tinting the poly with amber-colored dye. Bring out the wood's natural color and figure by applying an initial coat of dewaxed shellac. Using both techniques dramatically changes the wood's appearance. On a large surface, lay on the finish in successive, slightly overlapping end-to-end strokes, each about as wide as your pad or brush. Wet the surface with the first pass, go back over it only once...
Make Your Own Wood Putty
Tired of never having fresh wood putty when you need it You've probably opened a can and found its contents dried out, unusable or the wrong color. If you plan to use a clear finish, you can make your own putty from sanding dust save some when you're sanding your project and varnish. Just mix the two into a thick dough by adding the varnish to the dust, a little at a time. Varnish makes a good binder. Even though it takes a long time, once dry, it stays dry. Shellac and lacquer may dry faster,...
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On top of all this, bear in mind that the sandpaper and tools you use to remove flaws may actually create new laws middle right photo . Power sanders in particular remove wood so last that it's easy to lose control and create divots and farrows 011 an otherwise flat surface. Even hand sanding can leave scratches that will jump out at you the moment you apply the first coat of stain. Always sand in the direction of the wood grain, using increasingly finer grits, until the scratches dial are left...
Birdseye Maple
Birdseye maple is captivating, lmi has a reputation among woodworkers of being hard to find and miserable to work with. These are myths. Actually, birdsevc is readily available in staggering varieties. I'll tell vou where to find it and how to choose the best boards. And surprisingly, birdseye is easy to work with. I'll show you how to tame its unruly grain and give you a recipe for a great-looking finish. Birdseye1' describes a figure pattern that occurs in the sugar maple tree Acer saccharum...
Make Dewaxed Shellac
Take the wax out of shellac and you have a great sealer that's compatible with most other finishes. It's best to get this dewaxed shellac as dry flakes that you mix with denatured alcohol. Usually you have to order the flakes through the mail. But in a pnch, you can decant draw off one layer of liquid from another dewaxed shellac from the canned shellac you'll find at the hardware store. Bring e clean can or lidded jar with you to the store. With the okay of a salesperson, carefully carry a can...
With Glue Size
Problem 1 The end grain keeps absorbing finish. The face and edges of a board look nice and satiny after two or three coats, but the end grain still looks dry ard unfinished. Sealer Solution Glue size, which is ncthing more than thinned-down glue. To make glue size, simply mix equal amounts of water and white glue. Don't worry this milky-white solution dries to a clear, colorless film. Brush a coat of glue size onto the exposed end grain. Let it dry and sand it smooth with 220-grit sandpaper...
Make This Humble Wood Look Like A Million Bucks
Antique pine often lias a dark, mellow color. Unfortunately, when woodworkers try to duplicate that color on new pine by using stain, the results arc usually disappointing. It's easy to end up with mega-blotches and it's hard to avoid grain reversal, a peculiar effect that makes stained pine look unnatural photo below , h doesn't have to be that way, though. If you follow the process presented here, you can give pine deep, rich-looking color without losing its natural appearance. Pine is hard...
Painting Wood
The porous edges of an MDF panel or the end grain of boards need to be sealed thoroughly or they'll look and feel rough. Just brush on a sealer, such as white pigmented shellac, and sand after 45 minutes or so. Repeat until edge feels smooth. Pine knots will stubbornly bleed through regular paint no matter how many coats you apply. To hide them, seal the wood first with a shellac-based sealer. Pine knots will stubbornly bleed through regular paint no matter how many coats you apply. To hide...
