Nothing Severed Yet: Finishing

Rock in your wood

Long time readers will remember my coffee table project with the embedded slate tiles. This is a quick follow-up post to let you know how those tiles are working out.

Stripping

After spending 2 weeks stripping paint from the exposed beams in my living room I have devised a 3 step process for refinishing painted wood.

Filling a burl hole

Today I was working with a walnut burl piece, about 11"x15"x0.355", give or take 0.0015". Unfortunately, it had a big old hole in it.

Brushing: A Counterpoint

You have to deal with brushes. While Brian posted a lovely article about how to make this suck less, there's no denying that it sucks. You have to kick out $15 for a nice brush. Then you have to tug and make sure there are no bristles.

Brush 101

Finishing can be a pain in the neck. It's also scary, since no one wants to ruin the project they put so much work into. While I can't answer all your finishing questions - or for that matter all of my finishing questions - I want to tell you a bit about the most important part of success for brushed-on finishes: the brush.

There's Black and There's Black

A jet black ebony substitute is only as far away as the local art store.

Rockhard update

In my earlier post on Behlen's Rockhard Table Top Varnish, I talked about a finishing schedule of mineral oil, shellac, then varnish. HOLD THAT THOUGHT! Here's the problem: the first coat of varnish doesn't adhere properly to the shellac if you do it the way I described.

Final thoughts before I dye

My walnut dining room table needs a little tinge of red. I've been mulling over how I'm going to do that for a while, and per my usual habit, I'm going to share my thoughts and findings with you.

Read me, Seymore: "Understanding Wood Finishing"

I found a real gem I had to share. It's called "Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish", by Bob Flexner. It's been out of print for a while, and copies were going for $30 and up, but it was recently reissued as a paperback.

Dan got Rockhard for you

I've been preparing to finish my dining room table project -- finish in both senses of the word. I poked around and discovered Behlen's Rockhard Table Top Varnish. The folks at Behlen were kind enough to provide me with a gallon of varnish and a quart of reducer. It arrived a few days ago, and I decided to play.

A great rotten finish

You can slap this finish on in a night. It's tough, scratch-resistant, alcohol and water resistant, and it goes on great over trouble woods like cocobolo. And you can get almost everything you need from the Jolly Orange Giant for under $20. Here's how it works.

A finish that's good enough to eat

Sometimes you want to make something that can be chewed on, drooled over, or used as a serving implement. When that time comes, you want to steer clear of most commercial finishes.

Shellac finish, the Dan way

I've been experimenting with methods of shellac application as I work on the legs for our dining room table.

Humiliating yourself with mineral oil

Go buy yourself some mineral oil. Now, if you happen to have the simultaneous personality defects of being easily embarrased and constantly feeling like you have to explain yourself to total strangers, this may be a bit tricky.

Another reader question: dominoes on the table

Reader Question: I'm looking for a good, strong, clear sealant. My requirements are that it stay clear for as long as possible (no yellowing), strong enough to handle some "gentle" slamming of dominoes (which usually have a metal 'lump' so that they spin), spilled drinks, etc...

"Micro Mesh": A little something different

It's hard to find super-high-grit sandpaper.

More sawdust does not mean less wood

Well, I got faked out. I was generating HUGE quantities of sawdust, so I figured I must be making progress.

Finish with microfiber

When I was finishing my coffee table, I had all sorts of problems with the cloth I was using to apply shellac. I tried old T-shirts, socks, just about everything, but kept having problems with lint and pilling, which would show up in the finish.

Butcher blocks can kill

Oak is basically a big wooden sponge, and as such not exactly suitable for a sterile chopping block.

The Liquid Walnut Pastry Bag

You can turn the dust from your Random Orbital Sander of Eternal Happiness into instant liquid wood. Just empty the catch-bag into a ziploc for later. When you have a gap to fill, just add about 3 parts Titebond (or other caesin glue) to one part sawdust, mix, and snip the tip of the bag to apply.