A WOOD FINISHER’S GUIDE
JOHN OGILVIE
Presented to Peach State SAPFM October 2026
BACKGROUND
My furniture finishing background dates back to 1975 when I returned to Rome, Georgia, after serving three years aboard the USS Independence aircraft carrier. I have always been strongly attracted to fine finished period furniture. My wife Brenda and I leased an apartment in Norfolk, Virginia while in the Navy. We made several day trips to Colonial Williamsburg where we toured the Anthony Hayes cabinet shop, Dewit Wallace furniture museum, and Kittinger’s Craft House. I knew I had found the promised land.
I purchased Reproducing Antique Furniture by Franklin Gottshall at the bookstore, a bound volume I still own. What truly captivated me was Craft House, Kittinger Furniture Company’s extensive showroom of period Williamsburg pieces built from mahogany and finished perfectly. Wide boards, some twenty-four inches in width had been used wherever possible. Tabletops, chest fronts and sides, indeed all the pieces were perfectly grain filled and hand rubbed to a high satin finish. I could look deeply into the wood grain below the mirror smooth surface. I was entranced and became determined to learn how to reproduce Kittinger’s fine finish. It took me years to accomplish my goal.
In Rome, Georgia, after the Navy, I went to work in a huge textile mill in Lindale, as a production troubleshooter and construction manager. My eighty-year-old great aunt Stella lived just outside Rome in a charming clapboard house with porches, a barn, a double outside privy, and a sixteen by twenty-four-foot country store building my great uncle, “Oogie” had run for many years before he died. I asked Aunt Stella if I could rent the store building and transform it into my wood shop. She was delighted I would work in the old country store building and refused to charge me rent. Half hour conversations sitting on old chairs near the wood stove would suffice when she ventured out daily to retrieve her mail from the box at the road.
I rewired the shop and set up my tools: a nine-inch Delta table saw, Rockwell drill press, four-inch Craftsman jointer, 1/2” spindle shaper, 10” band saw, a small lathe, a 12” Parks planer, and a belt and disc sander. I built a vacuum system from an old John Deere cotton duster blower. Soon I was building kitchen cabinets for the old mill houses near where I worked and a series of chests, twig pots, bowls, and the like for the local consignment shops. My spray finishing area consisted of an old wood framed box fan stuck in the rear shop door with a plywood spacer above. The fan was not explosion proof. Lacquer finishing was a trick in the winter months while a fire burned in the wood stove. I would damper off the stove, spray my finish, allow the spray cloud to evaporate, and re-open the wood stove dampers. I was an idiot, and I was lucky.
My early finishes were simplistic. I built a set of birch kitchen cabinets for Nonnie, my mother-in-law. She bought me a Sears 3 hp compressor with a 30-gallon tank, a gravity spray gun, and some air hose. The local Sherwin Williams paint store sold an extensive line of wood finishing products in addition to house paints. Bob Wade was the manager. He was missing a leg at the knee but moved about as well as the rest of us. Bob had a vast knowledge of wood finishing and was always glad to point me in the right direction. Sherwin Williams produced high quality wood finishing products in 1975 and still does to this date.
In those days I would apply oil-based stain by hand with brushes and rags, wait a day, and spray a coat of lacquer sanding sealer. The next day I scuff sanded the sanding sealer with 320 grit paper and sprayed a coat of 20 sheen or satin lacquer, followed by more scuff sanding and a final topcoat of lacquer. I learned the hard way to use pre catalyzed or “pre cat” lacquer and vinyl sanding sealer for kitchen and bathroom cabinets instead of nitrocellulose lacquer. Nitrocellulose lacquer will not hold up in steamy kitchen and bathroom environments. Painted cabinets were finished by spraying two coats of pigmented lacquer primer, followed by a topcoat of pre cat lacquer.
I am still amazed by the volume of work I turned out in my 16 x 24 shop. Aunt Stella suggested I store my lumber, plywood, cabinets and chests on one of her porches under tarps. I built hundreds of one board, one and a half board, and two board chests, shot together with nail guns, for the consignment shops, all constructed of #2 ponderosa shelving, finished with a single coat of sprayed stain. People loved those things.
My shop made more money that my mill job, and I delighted in it. Every day I would drive my 1960 Chevy pickup to O’Neill’s millwork company, pick up a truckload of wood scraps and purchase odd pieces of wood I needed. Often I performed piece-rate millwork for O’Neill turning finials, newel posts, and running free hand curved shaper work on “the beast,” a twin spindle 10 hp clutch drive shaper, wearing a leather smock, chaps, and a face shield. One spindle ran clockwise, the other counterclockwise. The beast slung shavings with ferocity and squalled loudly when you ran against the wood grain. If you didn’t hold on to the work tightly, the beast would eat the piece and send it against the brick wall behind the machine. I ran six-inch crown molded edges on curved work, using wood fixtures with toggle clamps. After several weeks I learned to feed the beast and became efficient at running curved millwork, but I was always afraid of the machine, which sounded like a jet engine when it came up to speed and ran for twenty minutes after it was switched off.
Back in the seventies most wood shapers utilized lock collar steel knives, held in a steel collar by tightening the lock collar with a four-foot spanner wrench and all the muscle you had. Amazingly the machinist at O’Neill’s Millwork could grind four shaper cutters identical using a series of small grinders and lap wheels. All four knives even weighed the same. One day I arrived at O’Neill’s to see a hole in the brick wall behind the beast. The millwork hands explained that an employee on the day shift had failed to tighten one of the lock collars sufficiently and the beast slung the six-inch knife into the brick wall behind the machine, blasting a hole to the outside.
I met Hutch while working at O’Neill’s. Ferrel Hutcherson or “Hutch” was a furniture builder with a shop even smaller than mine. He was a sixty-year-old bachelor who lived by himself and built exquisite period furniture. He was one of the very few people I have ever met who made a living building high-end furniture. Hutch’s clientele consisted of the elite of our mid-sized town, doctors, lawyers, and wealthy businessmen, whose wives often called on my friend to make sure he had not forgotten their furniture he was commissioned to build. Hutch was a rare talent. He was largely self-taught and worked with archaic and dangerous machines including a tilting table saw.
Hutch owned a collection of period furniture volumes and had studied them. One year I received a Holtzapple book on complex and ornamental wood turning. The book was so technical and complicated, I could not get through it, let alone understand it’s subject matter. I lent the book to Hutch who found it to be the most fascinating book he had ever read and cherished it. I gave the book to Hutch, who became my mentor while I lived in Rome. Hutch loved period furniture and lived a long and fulfilling life pursuing his passion. He was very smart but hid that character trait well behind his tobacco chewing, direct speaking, and disheveled work clothes. Hutch finished with coats of spar varnish. His pieces were beautiful because of the expert workmanship more so than the finish.
In Rome I met Frank Culp, who had made his living refinishing period furniture for many years. Frank had a pleasing personality and sprayed nitrocellulose lacquer for his finish using a small homemade spray booth. The antiques Frank refinished were made primarily of mahogany, walnut, cherry and often featured extensive veneer work. Most of the time Frank stripped the piece to be repaired, reglued broken legs, sides, and tops, and mixed different colors of plastic wood and filled divots, cracks and holes. His repairs were not invisible, but close enough to the color of the original wood to be acceptable. Frank did not need to grain fill because the pieces had already been filled when they were built, or in some cases the high quality of the wood made grain filling unnecessary.
Downtown Rome had several furniture stores, but Wyatt’s was considered to be the best establishment for period furniture by a long shot. Most of Wyatt’s inventory came from furniture manufacturers from North Carolina, Virginia, and Michigan. Names like Hinkle Harris, Hickory Chair, Henredon were common. Wyatt’s had a large showroom in the rear half of the store, furnished to the hilt with dining room suites, bedroom layouts, chests, and accessories including chandeliers. It always seemed a bit odd to me the showroom always had a faint lacquer scent. As a boy I found the lacquer smell pleasing and attributed it to new furniture but later learned there was a reason for the smell.
Bobby Wyatt was a smart businessman. He bought large quantities of “seconds” furniture from his suppliers. Defects ranged from finishing blemishes to broken legs and feet, significant divots, cracks, and drawer stacks that did not match in color. Wyatts had large inventory storage rooms upstairs and an industrial elevator. Bobby bought seconds furniture and had his warehouseman load the furniture on his elevator and truck the pieces upstairs. Next to the upstairs warehouse was a well-lit spray booth, work benches, and a drying area. Furniture was placed on dollies and rolled in and out of the spray booth and to the work benches as needed. Woodworking tools and clamps adorned the walls behind the workbenches.
Frank Culp had a working arrangement with Bobby Wyatt to repair and refinish the “seconds” furniture that came into the store, but Frank was tired from years of moving the heavy chests and tables up and down and repositioning them and agreed to teach me finishing if I would assume his job at Wyatts Furniture Store. I was elated. It was my chance to learn wood finishing from a master.
Most repairs were not difficult. A broken leg could be reglued and clamped using custom cauls. Any jagged edges were easily filled to match. Divots in tops and sides, even large ones, can be repaired using wet cloth pads and a good steam iron. If you aren’t able to get the divot all the way back, leave it overnight and repeat the steam iron procedure. By the third try the divot is gone. Frank was an expert at toning, a skill not often taught. Toning is the one spray application that is “fogged” on gently three feet away from the piece. We did not have access to the huge array of “rattle can” aerosol toners available today. We made our own from universal tinting colors and dye stains and glazes mixed with lacquer thinner and sprayed from “Pre Val” units, gravity touch up spray guns, and airbrushes. “Pre Vals” are a life saver.
The most difficult repairs were deep scratches in tabletops, chest tops, and the like. Sides and legs are easier, not because you are better at repairing those, but the repairs don’t show up as much. You can turn a crappy repair on a side of leg into a pin knot or “character grain,” but none of this works on tops. You eye is drawn to the repair unless it is perfect. Back in those days, deep scratches and gouges had to be repaired using “burn ins” with burn in balm, a burn in knife, and stick lacquer, melted with an alcohol lamp. The replacement “burn in” color had to be perfect and was a mixture of several different colors of stick lacquer. Frank was not highly skilled at “burn in” repairs. I was not either. I spent untold hours trying to perfect my “burn in” technique. I never did, but I came close.
Frank gave me a free hand at “burn-in” repairs. I often changed from stick lacquer to colored plumber’s catalytic epoxy. Sometimes I could make the “burn-in” repair invisible, but often not. I over toned the top to death and partially obscured the grain. Veneered tops were easier. You just slice an irregular diamond or jagged spot of the veneer out, glue in matching veneer, scuff sand, tone and spray another topcoat or two. The repair is gone. I love veneer. It’s amazing what you can get away with. There is something delightful in those repairs.
I had access to a wide belt sander at the millwork shop where I worked part time as a subcontractor. Early on I removed three tabletops with nasty scratches cross grain and ran them through the millwork shop’s wide belt sander several times. I matched the stain color and spray finished the tabletops to match in my boss’ spray booth. I convinced my boss these tabletop repairs were highly difficult and he agreed to pay me a hundred dollars to refinish each table top I did. Accordingly I never became skilled at burn in scratch repairs. Money has a way of doing things like that.
In the two- and one-half years I spent in Rome working for the cotton mill, I learned much about furniture finishing. My finishes were not as good as those Kittinger did at Craft House in Colonial Williamsburg, but they were close. The one aspect of furniture finishing that is lacking, even today, is grain filling. Back in the seventies the commercial grain filler we used was a solvent based tinted slurry paste. This same filler is still utilized today. The trouble with commercial grain fillers is that the color tint rarely matches and the finisher is required to use a filler a couple of shades darker. The material is applied with brushes against the grain and rubbed out using burlap swatches and rags. Three or more applications are required with a day’s waiting time between applications. Commercial grain filler obscures the wood grain and darkens the finish noticeably. Worse yet, it shrinks long term, rendering the grain only partially filled.
Today one product exists that fills the grain, shrinks very little, and does not alter the clarity or color of the finish. Aqua Coat, sold here at Woodcraft is the filler. Aqua Coat requires work to apply and clean up but is not nasty like solvent based grain fillers and excess material can be collected and reused. There are nuances and tricks used to apply Aqua Coat, but it renders a beautiful finish and does not obscure the wood grain or alter the stain color whatsoever. I will explain its use in the grain filling section of this instruction manual.
This wood finishing primer is based on my many years of personal experience and geared toward a lacquer finish. Most of our SAPFM members finish with shellac. The techniques and tips in this instruction will work well for any finish, be that lacquer, shellac, or varnish. I sometimes use shellac myself in my finishing process and will incorporate its use as I discuss various aspects of wood finishing. Marion Smith uses shellac on most of his furniture finishes and is an expert at coloring and applying shellac and grain filling using thinned shellac, cloth applicators, and pumice to fill wood grain. Marion has graciously volunteered to instruct us on his grain filling and finishing techniques. Hopefully he will bring photos of his Chippendale highboy under construction. You will be amazed as I was, how beautiful it is.
One last note: this instruction is geared to solvent based furniture finishing, shellac, lacquer, and varnish. Waterborne versions of wood finishes and lacquer are now readily available from commercial suppliers and are reputed to be of excellent quality. I have little knowledge or expertise in waterborne products, but they will have the advantage of being nonflammable and will not require specialized spray booths to apply them. I would encourage you to try waterborne finishes on small projects and evaluate their beauty and durability before you apply them to substantial pieces you have spent many hours to build.
Please remember this one bit of advice. Almost all mistakes in wood finishing can be fixed. I often hear people who have incurred a finishing problem tell me they need to strip the piece and start over. You will be amazed how many mistakes can be fixed instead of resorting to stripping and refinishing. Once I built a Queen Anne highboy of walnut and finished it using conventional techniques. After I applied the Mohawk medium walnut tinted grain filler three times, I looked at the piece in horror. The highboy was dark brown, raw umber looking, the grain obscured, and blotchy in appearance. I was very upset. I called Joel Rago, the Mohawk rep at the time, and told him what had happened.
Joel told me to stop working on the highboy. He came to my shop the next day and looked at the piece.
“We can fix this, John. You don’t need to strip it and start over,” Joel said.
Joel brought in a couple of aerosol cans of translucent toner, shook them up and looked at the highboy carefully. One can was burnt umber. He stood three feet away from the piece and ever so gently fogged on light spray in the lighter portions of the splotched finish. Next he took a can of light walnut/pine toner and fogged the piece very gingerly. Joel stood back and looked at the highboy. After ten minutes of very gentle toner spraying, where only minimal amounts of toner had stuck to the piece, the highboy had a warm, rich, inviting appearance. It was slightly darker than what I had aimed for color wise, but otherwise perfect.
“Don’t scuff sand any of it. Apply two coats of 20 sheen nitrocellulose lacquer, scuff sand and repeat once or twice more and you’re done. More of the grain will come back after you apply the topcoats. You’ll see,” Joel instructed.
He took an aerosol can of Mohawk 20 sheen “duracoat” and sprayed a spot near the bottom of one side. Joel was right. I’m not sure why, but the grain came through more prominently.
I stood amazed. Joel Rago, through his expertise, had saved the day. I would never have believed my dark, cold colored highboy could be saved without refinishing.
Most of the time I built furniture, I did not have time to rework my finishes, so I fixed problems that occurred while I finished, and moved on. From 1975 until now I have only stripped and refinished three pieces of furniture. In one instance the stain can I was using spilled and flooded the piece, puddled and partially dried after my cat tipped it over. I was outside at the time and did not return to the scene of the crime for two hours. The only casualty was one of my cat’s brown paws that was naturally white. I washed my kitty’s paw with Dawn dishwashing liquid and she licked it dry.
If you encounter a finishing problem, talk to your buddies, bring it up at an SAPFM meeting, go online, and try to fix it. Most of the time you can. I will cover preparation, staining, finishing, toning, grain filling and a host of other finishing procedures. There are sections covering finishing repairs and furniture care. I hope this guide is useful to you. I have prepared it in Word Doc format. I hope you will add tips to this guide from time to time. Furniture finishing is very gratifying. I wish you the best.
CHAPTER 2
WOOD PREPARATION
You have built a Queen Anne lowboy and are ready to finish it. You notice a bit of dried glue that squeezed out when you clamped the legs. The sides are perfect, but a pin knot came up on the top of the piece … ugh. One of the drawers in the drawer stacks is lighter than the others, probably the result of sapwood. A chunk of wood is missing from two of the hand cut dovetail drawers. One of the trifid feet has a divot where you went against the grain with your gouge carving chisel. The quarter round edge of the top had a tear out from the router. The fan carving on the center drawer has a crooked lobe.
Suddenly the lowboy you were so proud of when you built it appears to be a disaster in the making. You decide to proceed with finishing. Maybe the finish will hide the mistakes you made. In reality the finish will only accentuate the flaws and the piece will end up in a back corner covered with doilies and relegated to a utility status to be sold at a yard sale and painted red by some handyman cruising the neighborhood. Or you can fix the mistakes now and have a beautiful period lowboy that will thrill your wife and stand proudly in the foyer, where it should be.
Glue squeeze out is common to most pieces of furniture. This was a difficult problem to solve with tiny bits of sandpaper and rubbing blisters on your fingers until Ronnie Young came up with his mini scrapers. I have two of them. They will clean out glue squeeze out, flatten inlay, smooth corners and a host of other functions. This homemade tool is a mini scraper with a handle. Don’t leave home without it. Go to Ebay and type in “ruler holder” or “Lufkin ruler holder” or “Starrett ruler holder.” Usually a screw tightening ruler holder will appear along with small rulers for $15-$20. Next type in “milling cutter blades.” These are small saw blades made from high tensile steel, usually costing $10 or so. In your shop use a small grinding wheel on a Dremel tool to cut a square 5/8” square. Grind one edge 45 degrees, insert and tighten in your ruler holder. These are wonderful scrapers. You can put a burr on them like your regular scrapers or not. These are great tools to eradicate glue squeeze out.
For the pin knot that came up on your top, use Timbermate colored filler fill the pin hole. Mix two different colored Timbermate fillers if necessary to match the color you are seeking. After sanding, use artist brushes, or better yet, very fine .03 markers and wider shaders from Michaels box store to color the areas around the pin knot. Even easier, use Mohawk “Blendall” crayons to color the dark area surrounding the knot. This fix takes ten minutes or less.
Concerning the drawer front that is too light, either stain it with a weak solution of a wiping stain that matches the color of your unfinished wood or tone it with an semi-transparent aerosol toner from three feet away or make your own toner using Trans Tint colors (preferably solvent based) and lacquer thinner and a Preval sprayer. Preval spray units are available on Amazon for $10 each.
To repair the missing wood in the drawer dovetails, shade a small clump of maple Timbermate with a drop or two of green Trans Tint for poplar repairs. Use Timbermate mahogany darkened with a couple of drops of black Trans Tint for mahogany, Timbermate walnut darkened the same way for walnut. Allow to dry and sand. Fix the divot in the trifid leg and rounded edge the same way. Timbermate is a great wood filler, but its colors need to be tweaked to match the wood you are filling. It dries lighter by several shades.
Take the V- parting chisel and enlarge and straighten the fan grooves in the fan carving.
The lowboy is now ready for final sanding. Use a Mirka 5” – 8 mm hook and loop pneumatic central vac random orbit sander. These cost $240 and will last forever. They are an air hog for compressors, but the results are night and day compared to electric random orbit sanders, even Mirka electric random orbit sanders. Place a 220 grit sanding pad on the Mirka, being careful to align the holes with the vacuum ports on the pad. Use 100 psi air pressure and plenty of it. Place a drop or two of pneumatic lubricating oil in the sander before you start (do this with each use). Apply only light pressure and run the sander with the grain using overlapping strokes.
Note: be careful not to sand the pin knot repair. Set this repair with a very weak quick spray of aerosol lacquer. Hand sand all carvings with 220 grit. Use rubber or felt blocks when hand sanding flat surfaces. Hand sand carvings with 180-220 grit sanding sponge pads available from Woodcraft, Ebay, Amazon, etc. Cut them into shapes with a razor knife. If sandpaper begins to load (accumulate sanding dust) wipe clean on a piece of Scotchbrite pad attached to your workbench. This procedure especially applies to scuff sanding between finish coats or sanding grain filler.
Sand with 220-240 grit sandpaper and pads at this stage of work. Do not use very fine sanding products or you may experience finish adhesion problems. Using compressed a compressed air nozzle, blow off your lowboy thoroughly, inside and out, drawers an all. Inspect your piece carefully. If you discover additional defects, repair them now before you begin finishing.
A note on compressed air systems: It is very important that you manually drain your air compressor after you finish each day’s work in your shop. Switch off the power and open the drain valve below the compressor tank. All manner of gross water will drain out, especially as the pressure winds down. If you are able, locate your air compressor inside the shop but close to an outside wall. Using flare or compression fittings, plumb a ¾” soft copper drain line from the bottom of the compressor tank to outside your shop. You can plumb in an electric solenoid valve (about $20) at your tank drain and switch the valve open to drain your compressor if desired. This is very convenient and encourages you to drain your compressor tank each time you leave the shop. If your shop has a basement, locate the air compressor in the basement. You will experience far less condensate with this arrangement. Plumb air dryers in all lines just before the terminations at the quick connect fittings. Drain them often. It is especially important that your air line to your spray booth be especially dry and free of condensate. DO NOT USE PVC TO RUN THE DRAIN LINE FOR YOUR COMPRESSOR. IT WILL ARC AND EXPLODE WHEN YOU DRAIN THE COMPRESSOR. It is a fire hazzard.
Traditionally air lines are plumbed with black or galvanized steel pipe. This is difficult and painstaking to install. Copper air lines are better but horribly expensive. It is strongly recommended that you not use PVC for your compressed air lines, especially if you own a 5 hp 80 gal tank compressor that kicks in at 135 psi and off at 175 psi. This is a lot of pressure and more than you will ever need, even when you are sanding with your Mirka pneumatic sander (which is a hog for air). If you have a compressor such as the one mentioned above, I suggest you swap out the 240V pressure switch with one that tops out at 125 psi instead of 175 psi. The pressure switch will last much longer and stress the compressor less. Check the oil level regularly in your compressor. If you are in the market for a new shop air compressor, try to find a 2 – stage unit. They are more efficient. I bought mine used in 1995 for $800. It has been used heavily and still runs great today. Facebook Marketplace is a good source for these. You want to see it running before you buy it.
I am recommending you NOT plumb your airlines using PVC. There have been incidents when PVC air lines exploded and caused injury, primarily when they are not strapped adequately. If you have PVC air lines, which I am not suggesting, they should be schedule 40, strapped every 4 feet and strapped next to all fittings on both sides of the fitting using the best PVC cement/primer you can buy. When plumbing for drains, in-line lubricators, and quick connects, use Blue Monster pipe dope. Home Depot sells Blue Monster now and it is available online. Do not use Teflon tape. It is a pain in the ass and doesn’t always seal well.
Magnetic controls should be wired to start and stop 5 hp air compressors. The current draw is large, even though these compressors are equipped with unloaders that relieve the startup air pressure when the pressure switch shuts off as maximum pressure is achieved. It’s the hiss you hear when your compressor shuts off. These unloaders are located close to the pressure switch and normally do not require maintenance. If your unloader ever sticks and does not function, lubricate the moving parts with a light squirt of WD-40 or other non-clogging lubricants.
If you own a compressor that pumps up to 175 or 180 psi, you can adjust the pressure down by first cutting power to the machine, removing the pressure switch cover, and screwing the adjustment screw (s) inside the pressure switch to lower the maximum pressure. This is an easy fix.
Water condensate is your enemy when spraying wood finishes. Excess humidity causes lacquer finishes to blush. Attach a blow gun to the air line that feeds your spray area and pull and hold the trigger. If condensate sprays out, you need to remedy the excess condensate. This can usually be accomplished by installing a second good quality drier near the termination of your air line.
CHAPTER 3
STAINING
Staining may be accomplished in one pass using a wiping stain or in multi-steps using a combination of dye stains, wiping stains and toning. Tools for wiping stain include a 3” China bristle brush (for oil based), a 1” China bristle brush, and lint free white rags. Spray equipment, while not absolutely essential, is helpful applying dye stain and necessary for toning.
Prior to staining blow off the piece thoroughly. I personally do not use tack cloths although some people find them helpful. Stir or shake the can of wiping stain thoroughly until all the pigment that settles in the bottom of the can is in suspension. Restir the can of stain every ten minutes while staining. A paint shaker is hugely helpful here. The big industrial models the paint stores use are very expensive ($5000 or so). The small shaker will agitate 1 gallon and quart containers. The large shaker will agitate only 5 gallon cans. Talk about sticker shock.
Do not disparage. Astro Pneumatic makes a small paint shaker that agitates 1 gallon and quart cans. It’s sold on Ebay for $140 with free shipping. You screw the unit to the corner of a workbench in your finishing area, hook it up to a quick connect air hose, dryer, and ball valve and tighten the hand wheel (reverse threads). Insert the stain can, tighten the hand wheel and shake your stain can for two minutes. Open the can and you will find all the sediment is in suspension. To shake a quart instead of a gallon, run the handwheel in additional turns and you’re good to go. I have used this paint shaker for twenty years without any problems.
Note: add two drops of pneumatic lubricating oil to the unit before each use. The instructions tell you to grease every two months. I grease mine every couple of weeks. There are zerk grease fittings to lubricate the unit. You will need a grease gun. If you keep the shaker greased, it will be happy and do a good job for you for a long time. If you fail to grease it adequately, it will sound like it is self-destructing. The Astro Pneumatic shaker will agitate paint, lacquer, and most other finishing products, even glazes in cans. Shake stains and glazes longer. This thing was $140 back when I bought mine and is still the same price – amazing.
WIPING STAIN
Stain the legs and sides of your piece first. Brush the stain on using either the large or small brush and allow it to soak until the surface begins to dry a bit or glaze over. Take a fresh rag and wipe off the excess stain in a pattern going with the wood grain. “Dry brush” (barely dipped in the stain can) the end grain and wipe quickly. End grain soaks up stain. As your wiping rag gets soaked and becomes unusable, set it to the side. It will be handy to touch spots that are too light. For the top stain the edges first and work back and forth with the grain with the brush, followed by your rag.
Let me back up. Stain a scrap panel and let dry first, including end grain. Coat with sanding sealer, lacquer, or shellac and scuff sand with 320 grit sandpaper. Apply topcoat and allow to dry. Check your test panel carefully in different lighting conditions, especially in the room where the piece is to be placed. If it is not what you want, adjust your stain and run another test panel. Using a permanent marker, write what you used to finish the test panel on the back for future reference. Accumulate a catalog of sample finish panels for future use.
Feel free to mix different colors of stain together. Be sure to shake the mixture. I use mixtures of different wiping stains on virtually every piece I build. One of my favorite stain mixtures for mahogany is Mohawk Medium Brown Walnut 75%, Mohawk Brown Mahogany or Medium Walnut 25%. You can adjust either component to produce that deep rich warm color. Be careful on the Brown Mahogany. Too much Brown Mahogany will turn the finish slightly purple. The amount of Brown Mahogany (reddish) you use is a matter of personal preference by your spouse. If you err and get the finish too red, it will tend to appear purplish over time. Numerous pieces of antique mahogany furniture have a purple cast to them.
Wear rubber gloves when you stain furniture. I prefer the medium thickness disposable variety. You inadvertently turn them inside out when you take them off. Cup each glove in your hand and blow on them. This inflates the glove and renders it reusable.
Always allow the stain to dry overnight. Resist the urge to touch up the stain as it dries. Don’t do it. You will screw it up. Be prepared, the stain lightens as it dries. Be assured, the piece will return to its freshly stained color when you apply sealer or topcoats. Leave it alone. You will have plenty of opportunities to tweak it.
You eagerly walk out to the shop the next morning to examine your freshly stained piece of furniture. You look at it and notice it looks dull and lighter than before. You look closer and notice a series of microscopic tiny nubbies on the piece. You realize these are from the cut up tee shirt or wiping cloth you used to wipe the stain because most of the nubbies have absorbed the stain. Do not try to pick these out under any circumstances. Gently blow the piece off and spray or brush a substantial sealer coat (more on the sealer coat next section) on the piece and allow to dry overnight.
You come back to the shop the next day and rub your hand over the top of your furniture. To your horror you notice, the wood surfaces are no longer smooth as glass but you feel a burr from all the little nubbies you noticed the day before, except they are more abundant now and stuck in the sealer coat you applied the previous day. Congratulations, you have just raised the grain and stuck microscopic bits of your wiping rags to the furniture you built. You’re thinking, “I’m going to tune up that Ogilvie guy.”
Relax … take a breath. It will be all right. Make a palm pad from some 320 foam back sandpaper and a felt pad and gently rub back and forth with the grain several times and blow off the white stearates that appear (these will dissolve in the next coat). Now run your hand across where you have sanded, rub with the grain and against the grain. Miracle of miracles, the piece is slick as glass, smoother by far than when you sanded it prior to staining. The nubbies are gone. It may be time for a breakfast beer.
Now, I need to clarify several sanding details. I use very specific materials for sanding. I have a love affair with Mirka. They are great. To sand flat surfaces, I use Mirka Goldflex foam backed soft sanding 4.5” x 5.5” pads #23-145-320. These are detachable from the 200 piece roll they come in. Tear off a single foam backed pad, tear it in half, and wrap it around a felt sanding block. Some people use a rubber or cork block, but I prefer the felt block. Either will work. The foam on the back of the sanding pad provides some give and take and makes sanding through the sealer into the stain less likely. This is called scuff sanding. Use a light touch. After you have sanded for a minute or two with the sanding pad, you will notice it “loads up” with white streaks. STOP! Do not sand anymore until you clear the loading. This is easy. Buy a few Scotch-Brite pads, like the ones you use to clean crusted pots and skillets when dishwashing. Cut a Scotch-Brite pad in half and position it on your workbench atop a rubber nonslip pad. Holding your sandpaper pad and the sanding block, rub the surface of the loaded pad across the Scotch-Brite. This will quickly remove the white stearate loaded on your sandpaper surface. You can clean off the loaded sandpaper multiple times this way. It is important you not sand your furniture surface with a loaded pad. Doing so will create friction and burn off the sealer quickly and grind off part of the stain.
Scuff sanding edges, molded surfaces, and carvings – Special care must be taken with these delicate areas. You would logically cut your sanding pads into smaller pieces and sand your molded edges and carvings, but I advise you to use thin softback grit impregnated pads cut into small pieces using a razor knife. One example of these thin pads is 3M Softback Sanding Sponge Super Fine (180-320 grit) 4 1/2 ” x 5 ½” pads. These are expensive ($37 for a 20 pack), but if you cut them up into small pieces, they will last for years. Some suppliers sell these individually. The grit is impregnated into one side of the foam pad. When they load up with white stearates during sanding, clean them with the same Scotch-Brite pads you use for foam backed sandpaper.
I do not use steel wool in the finishing process and do not rub the sealed surfaces with Scotch-Brite pads. Occasionally I will final rub tops with 0000 steel wool. When I do, I only use Liberon brand. The steel wool pads should have the strands of steel wool at right angles to the your rubbing action as you follow the grain of the wood. The reason I do not use steel wool between finishing coats is because it sticks to corners and crevices, no matter how hard you blow the piece off with compressed air.
BRUSH STAINING
This is going to sound like I have lost my mind, but it works. All of us at one time or other have brushed on wiping stain, waited until it glazes a bit, and rubbed off the excess stain using clean rags. Some of us have even rubbed in the direction of the grain using saturated stain rags to darken the piece to a deeper color. You examine the piece you have just stained. It’s not as dark as you would like. You can use Mohawk Designer Stains ($$$) which have a much higher solids content, or you can try brushed staining.
Brush staining can be utilized two ways, first to color sapwood to match the heartwood beside it in your piece of furniture. Brush staining to darken sapwood streaks is simple. Use a dye stain and brush it on using a three inch brush, either China bristle or latex, doesn’t matter which. Using either Transtint (solvent based) or ultra penetrating dye stain designed for spraying, pour a very small amount of dye stain the color you desire (you can mix several if desired) and dilute the stain concentrate about 80% with lacquer thinner. Use a plastic quart jar with a lid for this. Dip your brush in the thinned dye stain mixture and paint it on the light sapwood. Don’t mask off the heartwood area. If you slop a little dye stain on the adjacent heartwood, leave it be. If it blotches after drying, scuff sand it a bit with 220 grit. Most of the time you can ignore your mistake. Let it dry. You will see what I mean. Your dye stain will fully dry in thirty minutes. Do something else and come back to it. You will notice the sapwood you painted with your brush is a bit darker and closer to the color of your heartwood. If you missed the color a bit, doctor your stain mixture. After 30 minutes, coat the sapwood areas again. Let them dry and repeat this process 4 or 5 times as necessary to render the sapwood close to the same color as its neighboring heartwood areas. Once you are happy with the color blending, allow to dry overnight. The good thing about this process is that you can tweak the colors a bit by scuff sanding with 220 grit.
Examine your piece of furniture. It is now a pretty uniform color, but it is not as dark as you want. The next procedure is really easy and makes as much sense as Voodoo magic. Change stains to a wiping stain, not a dye stain like you just used. Mix a good colorfast wiping stain (like Mohawk Wiping Stains) to the color you want in a plastic can with a lid. Take your three inch brush and dip it in your wiping stain a bit. Wipe the excess off one side of the brush and proceed to paint the entire piece with your brush, flowing with the grain. On end grain and in molded areas, use a “dry” brush (most of the stain is pulled off the brush) to paint these areas. Paint in long streaks with the grain until you have painted the entire piece using your wiping stain. Don’t tweak overbrushed lines unless they are really overdone. Leave the piece alone and allow to dry overnight. Do not rub out the painted-on stain with a rag. You are done.
Look at your piece of furniture the next day. The wiping stain is completely dry and has raised the grain slightly. Spray a bit of aerosol Duracoat (clear lacquer) on an out of the way spot or scrap piece. The finish will darken to a deep color filled tone. Spray a sealer coat of clear sanding sealer on the piece and allow to dry overnight. Scuff sand with 320 grit. If the piece is not exactly the color you want, tone it just before applying topcoats. You will be amazed how uniform the color is. It’s almost like you forgot to wipe and got away with it.
CHAPTER 4
GRAIN FILLING
Grain filling is perhaps the most difficult procedure in furniture finishing. Before I discuss grain filling procedures, I will identify closed pored woods and open pored woods. You do not need to grain fill closed pored woods. You do need to grain fill open pored woods. Closed pored woods include cherry, pine, basswood, poplar, birch and maple. There are others, but these are the most common types. Open pored woods include mahogany, walnut, ash, and red and white oak. You do not have to grain fill open pored woods, but the finish has a far better appearance if you do.
Grain filling is very important but does not have to be difficult. As much as I hate it, I will first describe solvent based grain filling, since this is the procedure commercial furniture makers generally use. The reason this works for commercial furniture makers is because they have experimented and determined exactly which custom color of grain filler in conjunction with the stain color they have used will produce the final color of the furniture they desire. This bears some explanation. Solvent based grain filler alters the color of the wood to a darker and less warm hue. If you are a furniture manufacturer, you can tweak the color of the stain and grain filler you use until you achieve the final color of the furniture you desire to build. Once you have these formulae figured out, you simply repeat the procedure over and over. Generally, furniture manufacturers will offer a limited number of finishes (three or so).
SOLVENT BASED GRAIN FILLER
Perhaps the main reason furniture manufacturers often use solvent-based grain filler is because the top coat which is applied next after the grain filling operation is finalized completely dissolves the blotchiness and color issues of solvent-based grain filling produces.
Solvent-based grain filling occurs following a sealer coat after stain. You scuff sand the sealer, blow the piece off, and begin grain filling. The primary solvent in commercial grain filler is mineral spirits. Solvent based grain filler is mostly solids. It is sold in different tinted colors. There is a problem right off the bat. In the case of Mohawk Finishing, their Medium Walnut dye stain and Medium Walnut wiping stain do not match their Medium Walnut grain filler. As crazy as this sounds, it is true. Mohawk’s Medium Walnut grain filler is darker and colder (lacks warmth) than their stain color. I found out this the hard way. Don’t get me wrong. I am a strong advocate of Mohawk Finishing products and have used them with great success for many years. Their quality and the consistencies of their finishing products are impeccable.
Be aware, if you use solvent-based grain filler, it will darken the color of the piece significantly from the stain color you have used. You will need solvent based grain filler in cans, a 3” China bristle paint brush, mineral spirits (and perhaps naphtha), plastic Bondo squeegees in different sizes (small, medium, and large), burlap cloth cut into five-inch squares, and rags. Wear rubber gloves and an apron. This process is nasty.
Shake the grain filler in a paint shaker for at least two minutes. Four minutes is better. Your worktable will vibrate more than normal because the grain filler is so heavy. Open the grain filler can when you have completed shaking and check to be sure all the solids are in suspension. If it is unduly thick and you feel you will not be able to apply it efficiently, add some mineral spirits and shake again. Use a very small amount, less than you think you need. You can add naphtha in place of mineral spirits, but I do not recommend it because naphtha makes the grain filler dry faster. The grain filler should be the same consistency as a Wendy’s Frosty drink.
Brush the grain filler on in a circular pattern against the grain, leaving a thin slurry on the wood surface. Limit your work to areas you will be able to complete the work before the grain filler dries hard. Bear in mind, when the grain filler dries hard, it is permanent, very difficult to remove, and not without damaging the finish.
As soon as you have brushed on the grain filler and it begins to glaze over partially, scrape the wood surface using the plastic Bondo scraper in circular patterns against the grain. Scrape the excess grain filler back into the grain filler can so you can reuse it. Work your Bondo scrapers back and forth, always against the grain. After you finish scraping off the excess grain filler with the Bondo scraper, rub the wood surface in a circular pattern with folded pieces of burlap until the burlap loads up. Discard the waste burlap into a fire rated trash can. After you have rubbed out the grain filler with burlap, rub it out in the same manner with clean wiping rags. Discard the scrap rags into a fire rated trash receptacle as well.
Your wood surface has been completely grain filled. Go back over it once more lightly with a rag. Inspect the wood surface, molded edges, carving edges, and particularly corners very carefully using a good flashlight or strong electric portable light. Use a clean Bondo scraper to remove any accumulated grain filler. If you don’t remove all excess grain filler, it hardens and become very difficult to impossible to remove without damaging the finish.
You will notice that you can see rub mark patterns and splotchy areas on the flat wood surfaces. Do not attempt to remove these. Leave them alone. The next coat of solvent based finish (especially lacquer) will dissolve these imperfections.
A special note on molded edges and carvings. These are tricky. You do not want to attempt to grain fill these. It would be a disaster if you try and you will end up with hard gunk in crevices where you could never remove it. The trouble is you need to wipe the slurry on the carvings and edges to maintain a consistent color on the piece. Before you start grain filling, take a quart jar and pour a small amount of your tinted grain filler inside. Dilute the grain filler with mineral spirits until is it the consistency of a slightly thickened stain. If you notice any color differential between the flats and your carvings, apply this material to the carvings and rub off with a rag while you are grain filling the flats.
Vertical surfaces are difficult to grain fill. Rotate the piece of furniture and place on top of padded moving quilts so you are able to grain fill with the flat surface (like chest sides) in a horizontal position.
After you finish grain filling the piece, place it in a drying area and leave it be for several days. Let it rest. Even though the grain filler is completely dry after twenty-four hours, it continues to shrink. This material is solvent based and the solvent does not fully evaporate in one day. If your workspace is nice and dry, the grain filler will finish shrinking in about four days.
You will need to apply three to five coats of grain filler to completely fill the wood pores. You will need to let the piece sit for a week at the end of the last application of grain filler. The piece of furniture will be considerably darker and you will notice see less wood grain than you did before you began grain filling. See why I like this material so much?
Grain filler color – It is imperative that the color of your tinted grain filler be at least a shade darker than your stain color. Two shades darker is better. Why would this be, you ask? If your grain filler is the same color as your stain, or worse, even slightly lighter, you will see hundreds of light colored specs in your finish where the grain lines run. Grain filler which is even slightly lighter than the stain color looks horrible. I cannot describe how bad it looks. You cannot tone it or fix the problem without major surgery. Even applying another stain coat makes no difference except to darken the already dark, lifeless finish. If you don’t believe me, try using grain filler lighter than your stain on a test piece of wood. The next place the piece will go is your wood stove.
After grain filling operations are complete, apply your first topcoat of nitrocellulose lacquer, pre cat lacquer, shellac, varnish, or conversion varnish. Apply a substantial, but not thick coat. Thick is a bad idea in wood finishing. It is never better and has a greater tendency to check, especially at joints.
One final note – if you have grain filled your piece of furniture and the grain is not fully filled, and you really do not want to grain fill anymore, there is hope. Move on to applying topcoats using either lacquer, shellac, or varnish. Apply a coat, let dry overnight, and scuff sand using 320 grit paper. There is an art to this. Scuff sand just enough you do not go through your topcoat. Blow off and apply another coat. Repeat the procedure. This process will fill the remaining open wood pores slowly but surely and proper scuff sanding will prevent the finish from being thick.
There are people who never engage in grain filling as a separate procedure but fill wood pores using topcoats of finish and scuff sanding in between coats. It is expensive because lacquer, shellac, and varnish are expensive these days. Pre cat lacquer runs $60 per gallon. EZ vinyl sealer or lacquer sanding sealer is the same price. This procedure will work, but it takes almost just as long and your chances of finishing imperfections such as dust particles and the like are increased.
Note – do not use sanding sealer products to fill wood pore grain. These include nitrocellulose lacquer sanding sealer, EZ vinyl sanding sealer, shellac sanding sealer, or varnish sanding sealer. Sanding sealer type products have a high stearate content, making them easy to sand, but excessive coats of these products will produce a soft finish. Do not apply more than two coats of sanding sealer.
AQUA COAT GRAIN FILLER
Aqua Coat is a waterborne grain filler, which is the consistency of slightly thin paste wax. It is milky white colored and dries clear. This material shrinks when it dries, but far less than solvent-based grain fillers. It does not change the color of the finish whatsoever. The material is applied using plastic Bondo squeegees and cleaned up by using these squeegees as scrapers. It is scuff sanded between applications and scuff sanding should occur just prior to application of subsequent coats. Aqua Coat utilizes a mechanical bond, making surface preparation critical for proper adhesion. No burlap, mineral spirits, naphtha, or solvent laced rags are needed.
As an experienced furniture finisher, I find Aqua Coat superior to solvent-based grain filling except for the shellac and pumice method. Marion Smith will explain in depth shellac and pumice grain filling. It is easier to apply and does not make a mess. It dries hard and clear. There are several tips and tricks to proper application and topcoat application. It is difficult to impossible to grain fill with shellac and pumice over a stained surface. You must color using tinted or colored shellac.
Stain your furniture piece using the techniques explained earlier in this instruction. Allow the stained piece to dry overnight. If using lacquer, apply a coat of lacquer sanding sealer for nitrocellulose lacquer. Apply EZ Vinyl sealer if you plan to spray pre cat lacquer, post cat lacquer, or conversion varnish for the topcoats. Apply shellac or Bulls Eye shellac sealer if you are finishing with shellac. Apply varnish sanding sealer if you are finishing with either polyurethane varnish or spar varnish. No matter which topcoat you plan to use, spray a coat of shellac as a last coat prior to applying Aqua Coat. Remember, shellac sticks to everything and everything sticks to shellac.
After the coat of shellac has dried overnight, feel of the surface. It will likely not be perfectly smooth but contain some minor roughness. Scuff sand the surface ever so lightly with 320 grit foam pads. Lightly abrade the entire piece of furniture, being careful not to penetrate beneath the sealer and remove some of the stain. I realize this is conflicting. I am telling you to scuff sand the entire piece without sanding off any of the stain beneath the sealer. This is almost impossible.
All right you sanded through the sealer coat in three spots, not hugely, but now the rich brown stain color proudly displays bare wood spots. You envision trying to re stain the bare spots and blend in sealer on top of them but knowing the stain repairs will leach over on top of the sealer coat. There is an easy solution for this. Easy and quick. Even painless. The good folks at Mohawk Finishing have crayons in almost every color to touch up bare wood when you sand through the stain layer. You can buy them as a set or simply purchase the colors you need. They are expensive crayons at $6.00 each (Crayola would be envious) but you only need 5 or 6 of them – shades of brown and reddish brown. Mohawk calls these crayons “Blendall” sticks. Be sure to ask for “Blendall.” Mohawk sells other crayons that look similar, but the look alikes don’t play well.
Blow off the piece you have just scuff sanded. Examine the small bare spots where you sanded through the stain. Place your “Blendall” crayons near the spot and select the crayon which is the closest color to the stain you used. On a scrap piece of sandpaper, blunt the hard edge at the end of the Blendall crayon. Lightly rub the Blendall back and forth over the bare spot until you cover it. Back and forth with the grain. Examine your coloring work. If it’s a bit heavy, lightly rub off a bit of the color. If it’s not quite enough, make another swipe with the crayon. If you overshot the repair area, rub off the excess with either your thumb or a small rag. Examine your work. Once you’re happy with your crayon work, it’s time to set your repair. Pick up your Mohawk rattle can aerosol sealer (I usually use Duracoat 20 sheen) and shake it vigorously for two minutes. Test spray the aerosol in the air to be sure it is spraying correctly and not dripping. Now, practice making a left to right movement with the spray nozzle 3 inches above the repair. Starting from the left pull the trigger after you have started moving the can left to right and release the trigger as you clear the repair area. Do this again if necessary. You feel a bit uneasy the first few times you spray, but after that you will think nothing of it. When you have finished all of your repairs, turn away from your furniture and flip the rattle can upside down. Push down the spray trigger and tilt the can until nothing but air comes out. Disengage the trigger. You have just cleared the can so it will be ready to spray again.
After a couple of minutes examine your repair. The gloss from the rattle can spray has disappeared and now blends with the remainder of the sealer coat. The bare wood spots that were so glaring are now gone. Allow the rattle can spray to dry and cure (several minutes) and ever so gently barely scuff sand the repair area.
Mohawk Blendall crayons are useful to repair numerous minor defects such as light spots, sand throughs, small chips and tear outs, and less than wonderful joinery. If you have a miter or cope joint showing a slight gap, fill the gap quickly with a Blendall crayon, and rub smooth with the edge of an old credit card, a rag or your thumb. Once you begin the staining process, Blendall crayons take the place of Timbermate plastic wood.
I recommend you buy the quart size of Aqua Coat. It will last a long time if you keep the top screwed in tightly and the large plastic jar is easy to scrape excess filler back into the jar. Open the jar of Aqua Coat and remove a small blob of material with your plastic Bondo scraper. Begin with the front and sides of the piece. Tilt the piece over so that the surface you are working on is horizontal. Using a circular motion press down with some force and apply Aqua Coat evenly with the wood grain. Apply in a roughly 2’ x 2’ area. Take your Bondo scraper and reverse direction, going against the grain. Scrape up as much excess Aqua Coat as possible and scrape excess into the plastic jar for reuse. Check to ensure you have removed as much excess Aqua Coat as possible. You will likely have very slight swirl marks remaining, but these should be as small as possible. It is important that you remove as much material as possible from the surface, except what is trapped in the grain. Move on to an adjacent area and repeat the process. If you find you can apply Aqua Coat in a larger area and still remove all the excess before it dries, go for it. It is critical you do not allow the material to become crusty or hard. This is particularly important on inside corners (like where legs join sides). If excess Aqua Coat is not removed while it remains pliable, it will be very difficult to remove with sandpaper later. Work the sides first and the top last.
Allow the Aqua Coat you applied to dry overnight. Scuff sand the piece using 320 grit foam backed Mirka soft coat wrapped around a felt or cork block, sides first and top last thoroughly until the surfaces are smooth and no swirl marks or excess build up are present.
Do not scuff sand unless you are prepared to add another coat of Aqua Coat. It is critical that you apply coats of Aqua Coat immediately after you have scuff sanded. Do not scuff sand and wait until the next day to apply the next coat of aqua coat.
After the second application of Aqua Coat, allow the piece to cure for two days before scuff sanding and applying the third coat, again using 320 grit foam backed soft coat. After the third application of Aqua Coat, allow the piece to cure for three days before scuff sanding and applying a fourth coat. After the fourth application of Aqua Coat, wait four days before scuff sanding and applying a fifth coat.
Even though some literature states that two to three coats of Aqua Coat are sufficient to completely fill the wood grain, it almost always takes four applications to complete the job for me.
Once the grain is completely filled, scuff sand the piece one last time with 320 grit soft coat sandpaper and apply your first topcoat immediately after you have just finished scuff sanding. Pay close attention that you have scuff sanded every bit of the surfaces of the piece. Thorough scuff sanding is critical.
Spray your first topcoat of lacquer, shellac, or other approved material. Allow the piece to dry overnight. The next day carefully examine all the flat surfaces of your piece. Get down at a lower angle under different lighting conditions and look for ghost lines. These ghost lines were not visible after you sprayed the finish and it cured for an hour or so. They will become visible the next day after the finish has had a night to cure. Ghost lines will look like shadows at first. They will have a defined line where they start and stop and will cover a wide area. This situation is exasperating the first time you see it, but the condition is curable. Ghost lines or shadow effects occur when you have not sanded the surface adequately.
The solution to ghost lines is to scuff sand thoroughly and apply another topcoat of finish immediately thereafter. These ghost lines or shadow effects will disappear after you have scuff sanded and applied one to two coats. Note: it is very important that you seriously scuff sand. You do not want a thick finish. Aqua Coat products require a mechanical bond to properly adhere, much more so than coating materials with which you are used to working. Shellac and nitrocellulose lacquer form chemical bonds between coats. When you spray a coat of nitrocellulose lacquer or shellac atop a previous dried coat, the new coat melts the old coat and fuses into one single coat. Pre cat lacquer, post cat lacquer, and conversion varnish require a mechanical bond to adhere properly. It is important you scuff sand the existing finish coat in order for the subsequent coat to adhere properly. Pre cat lacquer, post cat lacquer, and conversion varnish do have some chemical adherence although it is slight. Spar and polyurethane varnish require a complete mechanical bond (achieved by scuff sanding) to adhere properly. Aqua Coat is the extreme here and requires a strong mechanical bond to properly adhere. The new coat will adhere to a large extent even if insufficient scuff sanding has occurred, but it will leave a ghost line and the area inside the ghost line will exhibit a slightly different appearance. When you scuff sand thoroughly, you will have scuff sanded through most if not all the previous coat, thus establishing the requisite mechanical bond as needed.
I have experienced ghost line areas in my topcoat finish when using Aqua Coat to fill the wood grain. I called the Aqua Coat president, who gave me the solution. I did as he instructed and my finish was beautiful.
In summary, Aqua Coat is an excellent material for grain filling. Its milky color dries invisible so Aqua Coat will not alter the color of your stain but will preserve it. Aqua Coat does not obscure the wood grain whatsoever. It is my grain filler of choice, and I highly recommend it.
PUMICE AND ROTTENSTONE GRAIN FILLING
My good friend Marion Smith will explain and demonstrate wood grain filling using pumice and shellac. I had the opportunity to photograph Marion’s furniture when his name was submitted for the SAPFM Cartouche Award, which he won. Marion finishes most of his period furniture with shellac. His finishes are flawless and beautiful. You can see deep into the grain of the exquisite wood he uses in his pieces.
Marion learned his finishes from his mother many years ago when she was a practicing wood finishing artisan of high excellence. Marion’s approach to furniture finishing should be learned because it is nothing short of beautiful. I will summarize his shellac-pumice technique for grain filling because it needs to be a part of this guide, but it is highly recommended you observe his techniques and read his instruction handout for yourself.
Marion begins with raw wood as we all do. He sands to 220 grit and fills the grain of the wood first. You take blonde shellac and make a very weak mixture of shellac and denatured alcohol (be careful to use alcohol with 5% or less methanol). There is just enough shellac in the alcohol to stick to wood. If you use too little shellac, the pumice will not stick to the wood grain adequately. If you use too much shellac, you will end up with gray spots in the filled grain. The proper color of the mixture is the color of healthy human urine – pale yellow.
Next you build a “rubber” to apply the shellac mixture. Go online and purchase a supply of surgical sponges. These are just small squares of gauze. Go to Goodwill and purchase a good quality cotton Oxford cloth white dress shirt and cut into four-inch squares. Fold the surgical sponges into a ball and place them in the center of the four-inch square material. Fold and tuck the corners and loose fabric into a tight ball and secured the top of the ball with a piece of string tied in knots. Waxed string works especially well. Take scissors and cut off the excess above the knot. This is your rubber you will use to apply the shellac.
Go to Woodcraft and purchase a supply of denatured alcohol and a can of fins pumice powder. Sprinkle a small quantity of pumice powder on the flat wood surface about eighteen inches square and distribute evenly by rubbing your fingers around. Do not use too much pumice.
Pour some of your shellac-denatured alcohol mixture into a shallow bowl. Dip your newly constructed rubber in the shellac-denatured alcohol mixture several times until the rubber becomes wet but not dripping to the touch. Rub the rubber in a circular motion against the pumice powder scattered thinly across the wood surface, paying attention to rub against the grain. If the rubber begins to dry and drag, dip in your shellac-alcohol mixture and continue. Rub in a circular motion until all the pumice powder is gone (absorbed into the wood grain). You will notice tiny bits of wood are present on the wood surface as you rub the rubber around. Rub different sides of the rubber often. This process is abrasive and wears holes in the Oxford cloth on the rubber surface. Work the rubber in circular motions until the wood surface is ever so slightly tacky and all the pumice powder has disappeared. Move on to the next section of flat surface and repeat the procedure.
The weak shellac you have rubbed onto the wood surface dries very quickly. After it is dry, examine the wood surface. If you have your shellac-alcohol ratio correct, the pumice powder has disappeared and you have a dull sheen on the wood surface. Some wood grain still remains. Repeat the procedure you just completed. Sprinkle more pumice powder on the wood surface, wet the rubber significantly by dipping in the shellac-alcohol mixture, and press the rubber against the wood surface, moving in a circular fashion.
About the third time you apply pumice powder and rub in with your shellac-alcohol loaded rubber, you will have filled the wood grain completely leaving a fine matt sheen on the surface. What you have actually accomplished is to dissolve the pumice into solution and abrade the wood surface by moving your rubber in a circular fashion so that bits of wood and pumice fill the wood grain, rendering the wood surface perfectly flat.
This is the start of a very fine finish. You need to understand that the wood is sealed and ever so slightly finished. You will not be able to apply a wiping stain and expect the same results as with raw wood, but you can add color to the shellac you use to finish, use different colored shellacs, or some combination of all of it. You can add color by toning using shellac and can continue applying shellac topcoats, either colored or blonde, scuff sanding occasionally until you have an excellent finish.
Rottenstone powder may be substituted for pumice powder. The technique is the same, but rottenstone is a volcanic ash product and darker than pumice, which is white. Sanding dust may be used to fill the grain as well. You use the same procedure, except substitute sanding dust for pumice or rottenstone or use in combination with rottenstone.
I have a friend who uses wood dust mixed with hot hide glue to grain fill. Somehow he makes it work, but this is a horrible idea.
Shellac is a beautiful finish, but you must guard against water and especially alcohol, which will dissolve the finish.
CHAPTER 5
TOPCOATS
Furniture topcoats are the final coats for a piece of furniture. These may be shellac, lacquer, varnish or rubbed oil. I will discuss each, but you should know that my experience lies in lacquer finishes. I refer you to Marion Smith for shellac advice. In any case, topcoats involve applying a coat of finish with either a fine China bristle brush, a foam tip brush, fine rags or a spray gun.
Spraying the topcoats is an excellent way to apply a seamless finish, but there are some tips to optimize the finish. Often the finish coating material needs to be thinned somewhat, using the appropriate thinner. The coating material must always be filtered just prior to application using conical fine mesh paint filters. Often small amounts of stabilizers such as retarder thinner or dissolving agents are used.
SHELLAC
Shellac topcoats may be applied using fine brushes, foam tipped brushes of from spray guns. Again, please ask Marion Smith for complete directions regarding shellac. Shellac topcoat material is made from dissolving unwaxed shellac flakes using denatured (or grain alcohol) alcohol. I am told that normally a 1.5 to 2 lb. cut of shellac is used for topcoats, meaning dissolving 1.5 to 2 lbs of shellac flakes into a gallon of alcohol. Having mixed shellac flakes with alcohol in the past, I know it takes a while for the shellac flakes to fully dissolve.
If you plan to spray shellac, clean your spray gun thoroughly with strong thinner. Allow to dry. Pour mixed shellac into the gravity cup atop the spray gun using a cone filter. Insert the plastic cap onto the top of the gravity cup with the vent hole either in the center or toward the rear of the spray gun. Spray several test patterns on scrap or cardboard. Adjust the spray pattern until you have a long fan pattern and not a circular pattern. Running the spray booth fan, blow off the furniture pieces. Screw wood screws or waste blocks into the bottom of the chests or legs to assist in spraying. Spray the legs or bottom first. It is vital you keep the spray gun moving while the trigger is engaged. Otherwise you will make runs in the finish. This takes some practice. Be sure the backs are removed. This will make spraying easier. Remove all hardware. Remove drawers and doors. Spray them separately using hangers or turntables. Spray full wet coats. Avoid overspray as much as possible. Spray feet using different angles if necessary to achieve full coatings. For sides, backs, doors, etc, spray the edges all the way around the piece first. Next spray along all the flats along the edges. Lastly fill in the flat using carefully controlled passes, holding the spray gun approximately 4” from the surface or whatever distance achieves a full wet coat. Overlap spray strokes approximately half the width of the spray pass you just laid down. Release the trigger at the end of each spray pass and engage the trigger just before you lay down the next pass.
If a bit of dust settles in your finish as you are applying it, leave the dust speck. Do not attempt to remove it. You can easily scuff sand the speck of dust out the next day after the coat is dry. If you make a run, you can sometimes remove it if you very quickly swap your fingers upward across the run, but often not. It is tedious to sand out runs, but easier than making a mess of the finish.
Adjust the pressure to your gravity spray gun to approximately 25-27 psi. Excessive pressure makes for dry coats of finish and excessive overspray. If you are using a pressure pot to spray (which I highly recommend if you are spraying a large amount of furniture), adjust the pressure of the liquid in the tank to 30 psi. Adjust the atomizing air pressure to the spray gun to 25 psi. Regulate the fluid pressure upward slightly if necessary but not above 40 psi.
In a gravity spray gun you will be moving around sufficiently to keep the fluid in the gravity cup agitated. For a pressure pot, cut the pressure off and stir the fluid in the pressure pot every 20 minutes with a stirring stick to keep solids in suspension. I used suction spray guns that have the fluid in a cannister underneath the gun in my early years. They will work, but the gravity guns are much easier and more efficient to use.
A note on stirring and agitating the fluid you are spraying. Some shellac and all varnishes and lacquers except high gloss have stearates added to the mix to achieve a less glossy finish. If you are spraying a satin (20 sheen) or semi-gloss (40 sheen) material, for example, you will need to shake the material before you start spraying and stir it up every 20 minutes or so or you will end up spraying portions of your finish high gloss when the stearates have settled to the bottom of whatever fluid container you are using.
I had a friend once who sprayed high gloss topcoats except for the last coat where he sprayed a satin coat. He felt the effect would be a clearer finish, yet have a satin reflection. Trouble was, every so often he scuff sanded through his satin finish, exposing the gloss. Ugh.
Each coat of shellac dissolves all the previous coats (or at least most of them). This is a wonderful quality and makes for a beautiful finish. Varying degrees of sheen are achieved by rubbing fine steel wool, very fine abrasive sandpaper, or French polishing. Toning can be achieved by applying various colors of shellac.
LACQUER
There are basically two categories of lacquer, nitrocellulose lacquer and pre cat lacquer. The pre cat lacquer category is split into several sub categories: pre cat, post cat, and conversion varnish. I will explain each of these.
Nitrocellulose lacquer is the oldest version of lacquer. Nitrocellulose lacquer is excellent for fine furniture, but should not be used in moist environments such as kitchens, bathrooms, porches, etc. For moist environments, use one of the pre cat types of lacquer instead of nitrocellulose. Nitrocellulose lacquer is a beautiful finish similar to shellac except relatively impervious to alcohol and water spills. For some years Mohawk Finishing produced a very high grade of nitrocellulose lacquer named “Buff Cote.” Buff Cote was truly an old world, period finish. Somehow Mohawk blended some carnauba wax and other ingredients into the lacquer which gave it a deep luster. Buff Cote was the best nitrocellulose lacquer Mohawk produced, but they discontinued it several years ago because of lack of demand. Today Mohawk Finisher’s Choice is their nitrocellulose lacquer, available in various sheens. I normally use 20 sheen.
Nitrocellulose lacquer sanding sealer is used with their lacquer as an intermediate coat applied after staining. This product has a high stearate content, making it appropriate for scuff sanding. I prefer not to use more than one coat of sanding sealer because additional coats will make for a soft finish. Nitrocellulose lacquer fully dissolves previous coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, similar to shellac.
Pre cat lacquer is used for kitchen/bathroom/ protected porch applications. These days with the absence of Buff Cote, I use Mohawk 20 sheen pre cat lacquer on almost everything I finish. I use EZ vinyl sealer for the sanding sealer coat. Do not use nitrocellulose sanding sealer with pre cat lacquer but use EZ vinyl sealer instead. Pre cat is an abbreviation for pre catalyzed. Pre cat has been catalyzed at the factory and does not require an additional catalyst (to make it harden). EZ vinyl sealer is used as a sanding sealer coat for Pre Cat and Post Cat lacquer and Conversion varnish.
Many kitchen cabinet builders use 20 sheen pre cat lacquer for their finish. It is moisture resistant, durable, and easy to spray and scuff sand. I used pre cat for five years when I built decorative wood range hoods and dishwasher and refrigerator panels for Timberlake Cabinet Company. Most of these hoods went in high end houses and held up perfectly. I never had a call back. At the time Timberlake used conversion varnish for their cabinet finish. My pre cat range hoods and accessories matched their conversion varnish perfectly.
Pre cat makes a beautiful finish and holds up well. I can distinguish practically no difference in appearance from Buff Cote, probably the reason Mohawk discontinued Buff Cote.
Before I shake my lacquer I add approximately 5% retarder and 3% N-butyl Acetate to the can. I do not measure this but rather just add a little. Sprayed lacquer has a tendency to blush in more humid weather conditions. Blushing is caused by trapping small amounts of water vapor in and under the lacquer coat and produces a white foggy look. Adding retarder to the lacquer slows down the drying process ever so slightly but just enough to allow the water vapor to evaporate. Blushing has a tendency to happen near the edges of flat surfaces, especially tops. There is a simple fix if blushing occurs. Mohawk (and others) make an aerosol product called “Blush Eliminator.” You simply fog on a small spray amount of blush eliminator onto the blushed portion of the finish and wait several minutes. The blush spot will disappear. Sometimes two applications of blush eliminator are required.
N Butyl Acetate is a flow agent for lacquer. It is a clear liquid. A gallon can will last for years. N Butyl Acetate added to lacquer will cause particulate to settle downward in the finish as the coat dries, often rendering the particulate invisible – amazing stuff. As an example, you spray a topcoat on the thirty-two inch piecrust table you have built. You stand back to admire the finish and spot a small but discernable dust nib protruding barely above the surface. N Butyl Acetate will more likely than not cause the dust nib to settle to the bottom of the finish and become invisible. This process takes some minutes. It’s like magic.
Pre cat lacquer is applied using conventional spray techniques. Different from nitrocellulose lacquer and shellac, pre cat lacquer requires a mechanical bond to fully adhere, however pre cat has does have some self-adhesion within the first forty-eight hours after it was sprayed. This means you need to scuff sand using 320 grit foam sanding pads between coats of pre cat lacquer. Scuff sanding between topcoats is a good idea anyway and an excellent technique to flatten and perfect your finish.
Please note – most lacquer produced by manufacturers contains a chemical makeup that makes the surface of the coat somewhat scratch resistant if left alone after spraying. This means that when you rub out the finish, you make the finish less scratch resistant, sometimes by a lot. I understand it is desirable to rub out the finish because doing so enhances the appearance. Just be aware of the consequences.
Post cat lacquer is similar to pre cat lacquer, except a catalyst is added. This makes the finish dry harder than pre cat lacquer, but you must spray out all the catalyzed material within 8 hours after you mix in the catalyst. Unused material will begin to gel after 8 hours and become hard at 16 hours. Post cat lacquer dries slightly slower then pre cat and nitrocellulose lacquer, becoming not sticky to the touch in 20 minutes (pre cat and nitrocellulose are dust free in 5 minutes and touchable in 10).
Conversion varnish has the appearance of pre cat and nitrocellulose lacquer (unless you rub it out) but conversion varnish is much harder and scratch resistant than both pre cat and nitrocellulose. Conversion varnish dries slower than pre cat and nitrocellulose (approximately 30 minutes) making it much more subject to dust particles becoming trapped in the finish. Some people call conversion varnish a “dust magnet.” Large furniture and cabinet companies use sealed spray booths and automated spray systems to apply conversion varnish. You must wash all spray equipment down with lacquer thinner thoroughly when you finish each spraying session; otherwise, the conversion varnish will harden in your spray gun and render it useless. The same is true of post cat lacquer. Be aware of this.
A note about lacquer thinner. There are numerous grades of lacquer thinner. The better grades are over $20 per gallon. Cheaper or “wash thinners” are less than half the price. There is a tendency to purchase cheap lacquer thinner to clean your spray equipment and thin dye stains or make toners. DON’T GO THERE. Use the expensive lacquer thinner for everything you do. There are vast differences in lacquer thinners. The cheaper lacquer thinners will turn your hands white and damage your spray equipment. Cheap lacquer thinners will ruin your finishes if you use them to thin lacquers or make toners or reduce spray dye stains. It’s not worth it.
Varnish – varnish may be either polyurethane or spar varnish. They are applied and handled the same way. First and foremost: do not apply varnish when the room temperature is less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. For that matter, don’t apply any finish if the room is colder than 60 degrees. In the case of shellac and lacquer, coats of finish will run. In the case of varnish, the finish will streak if you try to apply it using a brush when cold.
I will speak of viscosity here. When purchased some finishes are too thick to apply. Varnish has the greatest tendency to be overly thick when purchased from suppliers. Most varnishes need to be thinned by 10-15% using mineral spirits. They will brush on easier and leave fewer brush marks if thinned.
Scuff sanding – this is very important and a key element in furniture finishing. I always scuff sand between coats, whether I am using nitrocellulose lacquer, pre cat lacquer, conversion varnish, or varnish (spar and polyurethane). Be careful and methodic when you scuff sand. Put some pleasant music on your boom box. Listen to an audiobook. Make scuff sanding as pleasurable a process as possible and pay attention to what you are doing. Clean excess stearates off your sanding pads by rubbing them across Scotch-Brite pads. Use sanding sponges on molded edges and carvings. Repair stain sand throughs with Blendall crayons. Blow off the piece at regular intervals so you can visualize your work.
CHAPTER 7
SPRAYING TOPCOATS
You have sprayed a coat of EZ Vinyl Sealer (pre cat sanding sealer) on your stained piece. Carefully scuff sand the entire piece using 320 grit softback Mirka sanding pads held to a felt block (a 2 x 2 or 2 x 4 block works well). You have used 220 grit impregnated sanding sponges cut into small rectangles for molded edges, inside corners, and carvings. You sprayed a second coat of sanding sealer after sanding much of the first coat off. Sand the second coat the same way.
You are now ready for topcoats. You look at the piece and decide it is slightly too red. It’s a rich brown, but a bit too red. You need to tone it. This is very easy.
TONING
Toning is a subtle effect, relatively invisible, but very important. Toning is applied to either change the overall color slightly or change the color of individual elements of the piece of furniture. Aerosol toners are available from the supply store in either semi-transparent or solid in a huge variety of tones and colors such as reds, blues, greens, and yellows. Aerosol toners (often called rattle cans) are the easiest to use if you can find the color you desire. If not, you will need to make your own toners. Pre Val spray units are helpful here.
Note: if you end up making your own toners, please realize these homemade toners will dull the finish in the areas where you spray them. This does not affect the finish whatsoever. Do not be concerned. Your next topcoat will restore the luster of your finish perfectly. To make your own toner, make up a very diluted dye stain using Ultra Penetrating Dye Stains or solvent based Transtints. Spray homemade and purchased toners from three feet away from the piece of furniture. Do not spray close up. You are gently fogging these toners on your furniture. Keep the spray can or PreVal moving, stand back three feet, and make sure ventilation fans are turned off to ensure your toner hits the area you desire.
Let’s say your piece is too red. You need to cool it down a bit. Oddly you could use green toner to accomplish this, but this can go sideways quickly. Blue toner is a safer choice. Mohawk “Van Dyke Walnut” or “Universal Walnut” are even safer choices. Both are slightly greenish hues of brown. Gently fog on from three feet away. Homemade Pre Val toner would be weak raw umber with a bit of green.
Let’s say your piece is too “raw umber” brown or cold brown. It needs warmth. Warmth means more red or orange. You can accomplish this by yellow or lemon toner. Safer is Mohawk “Light Walnut/Colonial Maple” semi transparent toner. Homemade Pre Val toner would be a mixture of yellow and orange-brown.
You have to play with toners to become comfortable with them. You can easily ruin a piece using toner incorrectly. Be especially careful when you are blending sapwood which continues to manifest itself or shading specific areas of the piece. Gravitate to shades of brown rather than attempting harsher solutions. Drawer stacks are the easiest. All of us have observed a beautiful period piece some guy or gal spent countless hours building. The piece is exquisite except one of the drawers in the drawer stack is a shade or two off. All that is necessary is to remove the drawer, place it overlapping a horizontal workbench and fog on a toner that is close to the same shade as the rest of the drawers. Apply a topcoat afterward and you are done. Then sit back, drink a beer, and snicker at how easy the fix was.
I make most of the toners I use from dye stains and lacquer thinner and apply them with airbrushes or Pre Val units.
Let me explain the Pre Val unit. These are portable aerosol units that can spray custom made paints, lacquers, and toners. They contain an aerosol unit that screws onto a small glass jar. You mix up a low viscosity fluid (the master toner’s word for thin), pour some of your mixture in the jar and spray. Stand back 2 ½ to 3 feet when spraying toners in most cases. When you finish, save what remains of your mixture in a sealed jar (little home jars are perfect), pour lacquer thinner in the jar and spray a little lacquer thinner to clean the aerosol unit so it can be reused. It’s that simple. Do not attempt to mix topcoat or sealer products into your toner mixture. It is better to spray a separate topcoat after the toner dries.
Do not scuff sand the areas where you have applied the toner. Simply blow the piece off gently and spray on a topcoat. Usually two topcoats are sufficient after toning.
TOPCOATS
Topcoats are the last coats of finish you apply. These are extremely important. Some artistry, proper viscosity, and regimented spraying techniques are vitally important. Spraying topcoats should be practiced on scrap pieces until you perfect your techniques. I will explain a series of helpful hints.
Make sure you are spraying a high quality material. If you are spraying lacquer, Mohawk, Sherwin Williams, and Campbell Hausfeld are examples. There are a multitude of substandard finishing coatings out there. Avoid them or you will be sorry. Check the coating material you are preparing to use. If the lid has been kept hammered in tight, wood finishing lacquer can be used well past it’s expiration date (sometimes as much as 7-10 years). As lacquer ages it yellows a bit. In the case of furniture finishing the yellowing is good. It actually adds warmth to the piece. If you have different aged lacquers, pour them all together and stir them carefully.
It is critical you carefully filter the finishing coatings you use. Use paper conical paint filters to accomplish this. These paint filters will fit inside plastic funnels, or inside circular holes cut in a clean piece of ½” thick plywood. First thoroughly shake your topcoat material (in most cases lacquer or shellac) in a paint shaker. The small pneumatic Astro shaker works fine. Just before shaking, add any additives or thinners to your coating materials. In the case of lacquer, add approximately 5% lacquer retarder thinner and 3-4% N-Butyl Acetate. Lacquer retarder thinner makes lacquer dry a bit slower, allowing trapped moisture to escape subsequently preventing whitish blushing as the coat dries after it is sprayed. N-butyl acetate is a flow agent. If you are using N-butyl acetate, dust particles inadvertently sprayed with the coating lacquer tend to settle down in the finish coat and remain invisible instead of remaining on the coating surface and manifesting themselves as small dimples.
I will explain spray techniques both from the standpoint of a gravity spray gun as well as a pressure pot spray gun. I use personally use both regularly. There is a fine line for how much to thin your coating. If your topcoat material is too thick, you will experience difficulty with lap marks and consistency. If the topcoat material is too thin, you will have trouble with runs, especially on vertical surfaces. You do not want runs ever. These require difficult and accurate scuff sanding to eliminate.
Mohawk Finishing recently merged with RPM Industrial Coatings Group, Inc. located at 3194 Hickory Blvd, Hudson, NC 28638. Their new brand is Finish Works. I sprayed Finish Works’ pre cat lacquer and sanding sealer on a triple dresser last week. The coatings sprayed well, displayed good clarity, and scuff sanded normally.
GRAVITY GUNS
A gravity spray gun has a normal appearance and function with adjustment knobs for coating fluid volume and spray pattern from fan pattern to no spray. The fluid cup, normally aluminum, threads on top of the spray gun and contains a plastic lid with a minute ventilation hole. Coating fluid (lacquer in most cases) flows by gravity from the fluid cup into the spray needle chamber. You can tilt the spray gun over almost ninety degrees but you must be careful not to tilt it too far or the coating fluid will leak out of the vent hole of the fluid cup and onto the surface you are spraying. Doing so will normally clog the vent hole and make the spray gun inoperable until you clear the vent hole, not to mention the mess you made on the furniture surface. Don’t fill the fluid cup much more than 60% full and you will likely never have this problem. Gravity spray guns are used on furniture, cars, and a host of other items.
Be careful when handling the spray needle and needle housing. These spray needles are machined. It is important they not be mishandled or dropped or they will not make a seal when you release the spray gun trigger. Get in the habit of disassembling your spray gun fully and cleaning the parts using lacquer thinner. I often leave the spray needle, aerator cap, and needle housing immersed in a sealed plastic cup of lacquer thinner. Keep several small bristle brushes (not wire brushes) mini bottle brushes and a pack of dobbers (small yellow plastic rods with fuzzy ends) handy. Clean your spray gun parts by brushing with lacquer thinner. Collect the spring and adjustment knob and store in a dry plastic tub. You need to keep a tube of spray gun grease on hand. You will use this grease to lubricate the spray needle shaft and integral bushing when you reinstall the spray needle. Clean the spray gun housing carefully by brushing with a bristle brush and lacquer thinner. Be careful to clean the hole bushing in the fluid chamber and threaded sections.
I know you probably want to completely reassemble your spray gun after cleaning it, but this is not always the best idea. The fluid needle has a tendency to stick to the needle housing when left for a time after cleaning. To eliminate this problem, unscrew the fluid control knob and remove the spring and fluid needle just prior to spraying. Grease the fluid needle including the bushing. Clean the fluid needle seat with lacquer thinner and insert and screw in the fluid needle.
It is critical that you filter all the coatings you spray. Use the paper conical filters for this purpose. You will likely be using lacquer thinner to clean your spray gun assembly after you finish spraying. You must filter the lacquer thinner as well when you pour it into your gravity cup to purge the gun. Keep a good supply of these conical paper filters on hand and use them liberally. You do not need to filter the excess lacquer or lacquer thinner when you pour it back into its storage container.
A note on aged lacquer and lacquer sanding sealer. You will notice an expiration date on cans of lacquer and sanding sealer you purchase. This stuff is expensive. You discover you have a couple of cans of lacquer sitting on the shelf that are four years old, two years beyond the expiration stamp. Shake the cans and pop the lids off. You observe that the old cans of lacquer look okay except a bit yellow in tint. Your observation is correct. Your lacquer has yellowed a bit. Otherwise it is the same. You remember that yellow is a color which warms up the finish. Isn’t that amazing? Your old lacquer is now “period furniture lacquer.” Seriously, it is just fine to spray the expired lacquer. I have sprayed lacquer that is as much as eight years old. Usually I will combine the expired lacquer with my current stock if I need the combination of old and new to spray the furniture I am spraying, to keep the coloration consistent. I have sprayed finishes for many years. Expired lacquer has never caused a problem. One exception: if the expired lacquer has skimmed over or has solid chunks mixed in, discard it.
You have prepped your spray gun and poured filtered lacquer into the gravity cup. You are ready to spray. Test spray on scrap material first. If you have too much volume and the spray runs, cut the fluid volume down using the adjustment knob. Spray a vertical surface so you can determine if the coating is making runs. If the fluid you spray is dry and does not make a full coat, increase the fluid volume. Get used to engaging and disengaging the spray gun trigger. You will do this continually as you start and complete a swipe. Get used to holding the spray gun approximately four inches away from the surface you are spraying. Practice keeping this four-inch distance. Your wrist will ache at first, but you must acclimate to maintaining the same exact distance from the surface you are spraying. Engage the spray gun trigger as you start your spray path. Disengage the trigger when you finish the spray path. Spray bottoms, sides, and legs first. Spray tops last. When spraying a surface, first spray a path along the sides of the surface. Spray a path along each side of the surface. Next spray paths from one side to the other, overlapping halfway. Full overlapping strokes are necessary. Otherwise you will have holidays or insufficiently sprayed paths along the surface.
If you make a run, leave it, let it dry overnight, and sand out the run carefully and patiently with 320 grit sandpaper. Occasionally, if you are quick enough and have the skills, you can swipe across the run with your hand, removing it and immediately spray over the spot you swiped. After many years I have learned this technique, but early on, you will probably make a mess if you try to swipe the run and respray.
Use between 25 and 30 psi air pressure to the spray gun. I usually settle in at about 27 psi. It’s enough pressure to make the coating flow out nicely but not so much as to blast it on the surface, creating overspray and orange peel (pitting). The pressure will oscillate slightly as you depress the spray gun trigger and release it but not more than 2 psi or so. Make sure you are using a substantial compressor. It does not have to be a 5 hp – 80 gallon tank compressor, but the little pancake compressors will not work. Something in the range of 2 hp – 30 gallon tank is minimum for effective spraying.
Be sure to plumb an air dryer in line with the airline supplying your spraying area. Empty the dryer prior to spraying. Very little if any moisture should escape the dryer. If you find you consistently have significant moisture in your system, you need to address the situation. Clean dry compressed air is a must. Do not locate your compressor outdoors. You will be sorry if you do.
Spray your piece of furniture with confidence. Your spray gun is your friend. Spray legs and feet with short, deliberate strokes. Make three or four overlapping passes on legs. Spray underneath table top edges from below. Spray those same edges from an upward angle just before you spray the top. Let’s say you are spraying drawers. Spray the backs and bottoms lightly and let them dry for ten minutes. Next spray the sides, inside, and out. Turn the drawer to rest on its back and spray the front, edges first, then the flat using overlapping strokes. If you spray too much coating on the drawer front, set it aside for ten minutes, resting on the back. Then place the drawer horizontal in your drying rack. It should not run if you allow the excess coating to partially cure.
If you spot a dust particle in the finish on a drawer front or top, leave it be. You can not flick the particle out. It’s not possible. You will be sorry if you try and make a colossal mess out of the nearly perfect finish you have just sprayed. Wait until the next day, scuff sand the dust particle and it is gone. Let’s say it’s the last coat and you want the top to be perfect. You spray the top carefully, having filtered the coating, and use even strokes and a consistent spray distance. You think you have just sprayed the perfect last coat. Then you look at the top and discover a couple of dust particles, even a lap mark. You kick the trash can in disgust and curse, thinking you have to scuff sand the top the next day and lay down yet another perfect last coat.
Are you kidding me? Aren’t you sick of this yet? You don’t need one more coat of finish. A thick finish is not a happy finish. Shut down the spray booth, head to the house and drink a beer. You’re done. As period furniture makers we desire a hand rubbed finish, right? Wait two days and gently scuff sand the dust particles. Get out your Liberon 4/0 steel wool. You notice I said Liberon. Nothing else will do. It’s been sitting patiently on the shelf all this time. Wrap the steel wool around a 4” felt pad with the strands of steel wool oriented 90 degrees to the grain direction and ease the steel wool pad using long strokes and a light touch back and forth with the grain direction on the wood surface. Some finishers use rub cut oil with the steel wool. Some use dry steel wool and no lubricant. You decide. I usually avoid the rub cut oil because it gunks up sooner or later. If you rub the steel wool gently and with the grain, you will place a pleasant sheen on the surface of the wood. If you desire a bit more luster, apply TLC wax using a rag. Apply the wax using a rag and wipe off in a circular motion using a clean rag. Do not use Guardsman furniture polish or one of the many other fine furniture polishes on the market. Most of these have silicone in their chemical makeup. Silicone is your enemy. Other fine furniture waxes have waiting periods before you wipe them off. Only use TLC. Wipe it on, wipe it off. You’re done.
PRESSURE POT SPRAYING
Most of you will never use a pressure pot to spray your finishes. Your gravity gun will suffice. It’s easy to clean up and the mechanics are simple. Pressure pot spraying is easier and you have more control. The pressure pot is either a 2 gallon or 5 gallon steel galvanized container and works like a low pressure cooker. I have one pressure pot that is 2 quarts. It’s a cute toy with gauges. It sits on the shelf and reflects the disarray of my finish room.
The two-gallon pressure pot is my favorite. Always use a dust free plastic liner in your pressure pot. A two gallon pressure pot has two air regulators with gauges mounted on the lid along with a pressure relief valve and an air release valve. Some pressure pots have an agitator mounted on the lid along with another regulator and gauge. The agitator keeps the fluid coating inside the pressure pot slowly circulating to prevent the stearates in the mix from settling out of solution and dropping to the bottom of the pot. If this settlement happens, the sheen you are spraying will change to gloss as the settlement worsens. I bought a two-gallon pressure pot with an agitator once, cleaned it and began spraying. Unfortunately I had “fish eye” in the coating I sprayed, meaning the manufacturer of the pressure pot used silicone to seal up some fittings or as a lubricant for the agitator. I scuff sanded the “fish eyes” out and never used the pressure pot again. Perhaps I will endeavor to thoroughly clean all silicone from the agitator pot at some point, but for now, I just open my regular pressure pot and stir the mix every so often.
Set the fluid pressure regulator at approximately 15-20 psi. Set the air regulator at 25-27 psi. Adjust the pressures slightly until you have a consistent flow (no slowdown of fluid) and consistent air pressure. Normally 3/8” ID hoses are used for fluid and air. Some rigs have a ½” hose for one or both. The ½” hoses are bulkier and more difficult to handle. I use 3/8” hoses for both air and fluid. Use a short ½” hose to feed the regulator manifold assembly. Crank the regulator pressure to 50-60 psi to the hose that feeds the manifold. This will give you consistent fluid and air pressure. Adjust the spray pattern on your gun to a full fan spray. Adjust the fluid volume on your spray gun so you are spraying full wet coats, but the coats do not have runs.
When you spray with a pressure pot, you can turn the spray gun in any direction, even upside down without consequences. This is a big advantage. Now when you spray, you can concentrate fully on maintaining proper distance from the surface and overlapping spray strokes. Since you are spraying clear fluids, cleanup is surprisingly easy. When you finish spraying, you have to drain all the lacquer out of the hoses and into the pressure pot tank. This seems like a tenuous job. It is not. You will need to burp the rig to drain all the lacquer out of the spray gun and fluid hose into the pressure pot.
Find a stool and sit down. Drain the pressure off the pressure pot by fully opening the fluid regulator and the air valve on top of the pressure pot. This takes 10 seconds. Leave the air hose connected to the regulator manifold. Unclamp the pressure pot lid and tilt the fluid pickup tube so it rests above the fluid level in the tank. It will rest there on its own. Loosen the air cap on your spray gun until it almost comes off. Open the fluid volume knob on your spray gun almost all the way open. Cup a small rag over the air cap on your spray gun and pull the trigger to the gun fully. Your coating fluid will drain into your pressure pot tank, lots of fluid at first and less later on. After a couple of minutes you are down to a slow drip. You have just burped the rig. The lacquer is drained from your fluid line and the spray gun. Set the pressure pot cap aside (I leave mine on the floor) and pour out the coating fluid into its original container.
Using a paper cone filter pour lacquer thinner (a gallon or so) into the open pressure pot tank. Place the lid on the tank and tighten the hand screws. Close the air valve on the tank. Open the fluid regulator until you have 15 psi. Screw the air cap securely on your spray gun. Turn the fluid volume knob on your spray gun counterclockwise some. Make sure the furniture pieces you have just sprayed are out of the way. Pull the trigger on the spray gun for several seconds until lacquer thinner sprays out. Cut the fan pattern knob all the way over, eliminating the aeration for the spray. Hold the gun over a plastic receptacle or your lacquer thinner can. Pull the trigger and lacquer thinner will shoot in a steady stream into your can. You have just flushed the rig.
If you will be spraying the next day or later on, leave the lacquer thinner in the pressure pot. Disconnect the air hose feeding the pressure manifold on the pot. Remove the air cap and store it in a closed container of lacquer thinner. Using your bristle brush, clean the fluid needle cap and spray gun. Be careful to fully clean the needle tip, pulling and releasing the spray gun trigger as you brush lacquer thinner on the spray gun parts.
When you have completely finished spraying, burp the rig clean of lacquer thinner as well. It is a good idea to remove the fluid adjustment knob, spring, and fluid needle from the spray gun as well as the air cap. Wash the part in lacquer thinner and store in a clean container. Do not lose the spray gun parts. Replacements are often difficult to obtain. Before you commence spraying again, grease the fluid needle assembly and clean the spray gun parts. If you merely clean the spray gun with lacquer thinner and leave the spray gun assembled, the gun tends to stick and will sometimes not function until you have completely cleaned and greased it once more. A bit of lacquer will have caused the component parts of the spray gun to stick together.
Spray booth safety – Lacquer and shellac are highly flammable, the mist when you spray lacquer and shellac even more so. It is imperative you have a spray booth and exhaust fan set up for explosion proof operation. It is ingenious the way manufacturers accomplish this. Fluorescent troffer lights are the best. I have two 4 tube 4 foot fixtures overhead and two in the side walls of the spray booth. These light fixtures are sealed and mounted outside the spray booth and their wiring is not inside the booth. The exhaust fan is a twenty-four inch axial fan with the motor and pulley system outside the circular exhaust duct. Switches and controls for the spray booth lights and exhaust fan are located in the next room. This entire configuration was engineered by a company who manufactures spray booths compliant and safe for spraying flammable liquids such as lacquer. I was lucky when I was young and fresh out of the Navy. I could have easily had a catastrophic fire or explosion with the shade tree exhaust fan set up I used back then, especially considering I heated with a wood stove. Don’t compromise of spray booth safety. I purchased my spray booth, lighting and exhaust fan for $2400 some years ago and it’s safe with a 12 foot square area eight feet high.
CHAPTER 6
REPAIRS
Repairs are the most important part of furniture finishing. No matter how good you are at finishing, you will need to make repairs quickly and effectively. This is no easy task and must be learned through experience. I have met people through the years who earn a good salary making repairs for corporate clients and individuals. These guys work out of a pickup truck with a camper shell or van, travel from place to place, and make wood finish repairs in place. They are the best of the best. I am not in their league. I have always had a spray booth or workshop facility in which to make my repairs. I will start with the simplest repairs and move on to more difficult situations.
Sand Throughs – You are finishing several pieces of furniture and have applied stain and a sealer coat of finish. You are scuff sanding with 320 grit and ZZ Top begins playing “LaGrange” on the radio. You get into the groove and sand through the stain to bare wood before you realize your mistake. In the old days this would have been a tedious repair. Today the fix is easy. Mohawk makes repair crayons in hundreds of colors and all shades of brown. I do not advise buying sets of these crayons but simply the colors you need.
Pick out a Blendall crayon that matches the color of the stain you used. Lay the crayon next to the sand through spot. One or two of the colors will match. Wipe the repair with a rag and blow off. Using a gentle straight line arc motion swipe the Blendall crayon back and forth in the same direction as the grain until you have colored the sand through spot. Feather your crayon strokes to nothing as you near the edges of the repair. Take your thumb and ever so slightly feather out the edges of the repair. If you mess up, wipe off the crayon with a rag and start over.
When you have colored the repair area with your Blendall crayon, it is time to seal your repair. Take a rattle can of aerosol Mohawk Duracoat 20 sheen, shake it up thoroughly, test spray on a piece of scrap and spray your repair area. This is a quick motion. Take a couple of practice motions with the spray can in your hand and make a swipe for real. As you near the lead edge of the repair, engage the trigger on the aerosol can and release the trigger as you reach the end of the repair. You may have to hit it twice, but usually one good swipe does the trick. You will notice the area you just sprayed is glossier than the surrounding finish. When the spray dries, the finish will match. You have just colored and set the repair. It’s that simple.
Cracks in Joinery – Your joinery was less than perfect on a miter corner or cope and stick joint. Take a Blendall crayon the same color and rub the crayon across the joint until it disappears. Use an old credit card to remove the excess. Pay careful attention you have completely filled the crack. Spray with Duracoat and you’re done.
Blushing – You have just finished spraying the piece of furniture. The finish dries and you are left with white shaded areas here and there, particularly prominent at the edges and corners of the piece. The humidity is probably high. You have trapped moisture inside the coat you just sprayed. Sometimes the next coat will dissolve the blush spots but not always. You need blush eliminator. Blush eliminator comes in aerosol cans from Mohawk and other companies. Shake the can thoroughly, stand back a couple of feet and fog on a small amount of blush eliminator. Not too much, just a little. Wait a few seconds and the blush spot will disappear. If you don’t remove all the blushing on the first pass, hit it again. Less is more here. Your problem is gone. Add a bit more lacquer retarder thinner to the lacquer you are spraying.
White Spots and Streaks After Scuff Sanding – You have just scuff sanded your most recent coat of finish. White streaks remain everywhere. You tried wiping them off with a clean rag. Some of the streaks are still there. Do not wipe these white streaks off with a rag. Do not wipe them off with anything except the cuff of your clean hand while you are blowing across the wood surface with a compressed air blow gun. If you wipe with a rag, you are introducing fiber nibs into the finish when you spray the next coat. Hit the surface with a blow gun and leave the rest of the white powder. It will fully dissolve when you spray the next coat of finish.
Checks and Shakes – This is common to cherry wood. You have these little curved cracks that run with the grain occasionally. Fill these with Blendall crayons and carefully wipe off the excess. Seal them and move on with your finishing.
Pin Knots – These are common to walnut and tend to come up to the surface as you sand prior to finishing. They are very hard to hide, nearly impossible. Almost all the old period walnut pieces had some pin knots. You can try painting over these knots using artist oil paints mixed to a color matching the overall wood surface. Use a cat’s tongue brush followed by a pointed brush to paint in grain lines. A little bit goes a long way. Less is more. It’s easy to make the problem worse. I keep a small collection of artist oil paints for this purpose. Semitransparent thinned oil paints applied sparingly with airbrushes work as well. If in doubt, leave them alone and move on.
Scratches more or less with the Grain in Finished Furniture – I will reference Mohawk’s Hard Fill Repair Kit. These are scratches in the finished furniture surfaces that cut into the stain to expose bare wood. They are difficult to repair. They used to be even harder when you had to melt stick lacquer into the finish and smooth it off with a hot burn in knife using burn in balm. Today this is easier. Most of the time you can repair deep scratches somewhat in line with the wood grain.
I am not recommending you purchase the Mohawk Hard Fill Repair Kit. It coats $250 and comes with a good collection of stick lacquer colors and a battery powered soldiering iron. A good battery powered soldiering iron is about $50. You can purchase individual colors of stick lacquer from Mohawk and you’re all set. An old credit card can be used to scrape repairs flush.
First you carefully cut jagged wood from the scratch. Next find a piece of stick lacquer the same color as the stain and fill the crack. Color matching is the key here. If the color doesn’t match, the repair will not work. You may have to melt two different colors of stick lacquer together in a small clump on a small piece of wood and then melt the combination into the crack. If the color matches, you will probably be successful. Once you have filled the crack and the lacquer dried, scrape off the excess with an old credit card. You may need to grain the fill in the repair. If so, use an artist brush with oil paint or very fine colored grain markers. Seal your repair with a couple of quick coats of aerosol lacquer (Duracoat).
If the scratch runs cross grain, it will be almost impossible to repair unless you are very good.
Drawer Stack Mismatch – You have a stack of drawers on the chest you are finishing. One of the drawers did not take the stain you applied the same as the others. It is lighter by a couple of shades. This is an easy repair that can be accomplished two different ways. You can take a semitransparent aerosol toner that matches all the drawers except the light one. Pull the light drawer from the furniture and place it horizontally on a clean workbench close by. Stand back three feet and gently spray the aerosol toner by fogging it on rather than coating. Make a pass or two, let the toner dry and compare the drawer you just fogged to the other drawers. Gently fog on toner until the light drawer matches the other drawers in the drawer stack. Spray another topcoat on all the drawers. Scuff sand the drawers that were the right color to start with before you spray another coat. Do not scuff sand the drawer you toned to match the others but simply spray another coat on it. All the drawers will now match.
You can also make your own toner, but it will flatten the finish, which hurts nothing. Mix a solvent-based dye stain to match the color of the drawers which are the correct color. This will almost always be the color you originally used to stain the piece. Dilute the dye stain you have made by 80-90% using lacquer thinner. Pour the thinned dye stain in a Pre Val or gravity spray gun. Stand back three feet and fog on some of your thinned dye stain. Compare the color to the other drawers. If it is still too light, fog on another thin coat. After a pass or two the light drawer will match the color of the other drawers, except its finish will be dead flat. The lacquer thinner you used to thin the stain dulled the finish of the drawer you are altering. This presents no problem. Spray another topcoat on the drawer front you modified and you are good to go.
One Board on the Top Surface is Lighter than the Others – You are down to your first topcoat. One board out of four on the top is too light. It is noticeable. Scuff sand and find a semitransparent aerosol toner that is the same color as the body of your piece of furniture, shake well, and sand back three feet and fog on a coat of toner over the light colored board, moving in the direction of the grain. Do this two to three times. Spray one more topcoat. All the boards should now be the same color.
Orange Peel – This is a situation where the surface of the wood feels like the outside surface of an orange. It is pitted with a multitude of small pits. You have used too much air pressure and you may have sprayed too close to the surface. Reduce the air pressure to 27 PSI and stand back four inches when you spray.
Fisheye – This is a red alert. If you experience circular “eyes” in your finish, you have contamination in the form of silicone. Silicone of any variety is the arch enemy of spray finishing. Even small amounts of silicone can cause huge problems. Let’s say you have been using a gravity gun and encounter fisheye. The problem is always silicone. Either you have some silicone in your spray equipment, the wood surface (most common), or in the coating itself. There is a product called fisheye remover. Smoothie makes a lot of fisheye remover. You add some fisheye remover to your coating and spray and the fisheye is gone. The trouble is, you have just added silicone permanently to your furniture finishing system. You will always have to add fisheye remover to all the coatings you spray. There are numerous people who do this. I think it is a bad idea. Instead, spend some time and isolate the problem. Almost all furniture polish contains silicone, even the expensive brands like Guardsman. My mother used to swear by Guardsman ….ugh. Needless to say, “Pledge” is a curse word to me. Johnson Paste Wax and TLC furniture polish do not have silicone in them. You are safe with them.
If you are refinishing an existing piece of furniture or recoating it, you will likely encounter silicone in the existing furniture polish. Dip clean rags in Mohawk Wax Wash or similar product and wipe down the existing piece of furniture thoroughly. Repeat the process several times, including inside drawers and on drawer blades, etc. You will be ready to apply finish.
Examine your spray equipment. If any hint of silicone is present, remove it using strong solvents like lacquer thinner or MEK. If you have any tubes of silicone caulking around, relocate them far away from your finishing area. Examine the lubricants you have close by. Chances are good some will contain silicone. After you make a thorough sweep of your finishing area and feel you have eliminated all sources of silicone, take some fresh coating material and test spray a scrap piece or two of wood. If you do not have fisheye, you are good to go.
Blending Walnut Sapwood – Walnut sapwood is nearly pure white. Walnut heartwood is a deep brown color with some hints of purple. To blend walnut sapwood to walnut heartwood, make a mixture of Mohawk 20% black, 80% brown mahogany dye stain (ultra penetrating stain). Dilute the mixture to about 20% stain mix and 80% lacquer thinner. Paint the diluted stain mix on the walnut sapwood with a two-and-a-half-inch brush, cutting a line at the juncture of the walnut heartwood and sapwood. If you overlap your brush strokes slightly on the heartwood, don’t worry about it. Allow the dye stain to dry (10 minutes). Repeat the process until the sapwood blends into the heartwood.
Blending Cherry Sapwood – Cherry sapwood is light pink to white as opposed to the reddish brown heartwood. Take Mohawk Medium Walnut dye stain (ultra penetrating stain), dilute it 80% with lacquer thinner, and paint the stain mixture on the cherry sapwood with a two- and one-half inch brush, cutting at the line between the sapwood and heartwood. If you have overlap in your brush strokes, ignore it. After four or so applications of the stain mixture, the sapwood will match the heartwood.
Mahogany Sapwood – This happens less often. Use a similar procedure as above except the stain mixture needs to be 30% Mohawk Brown Mahogany, 70% Mohawk Medium Brown Walnut dye stain (ultra penetrating stain).
Ghost Spots Appearing after Using Aqua Coat – You have filled the grain on your mahogany chest using Aqua Coat Grain Filler. After four applications followed by scuff sanding, you determine the grain to be filled and spray on a lacquer topcoat. The surface looks smooth and uniform. You look at the piece the next morning and notice what appear to be ghost lines outlining portions of the surface. Do not panic. This is correctable. Aqua Coat is the best grain filler on the market today. It fills the wood pores nicely, incurs minimal shrinkage, and does not alter the color of the finish, drying perfectly clear. Aqua Coat depends completely on a mechanical bond to adhere, and it wants the mechanical bond to be established immediately prior to application of applied topcoats. To clarify, you need to scuff sand surfaces completely and thoroughly with 320 grit just before you spray the topcoat. If you wait even a couple of hours after scuff sanding to apply your topcoat, you may experience difficulty with ghost lines. Fortunately the ghost lines do not indicate the finish is going to flake off, but you must scuff sand at the ghost lines and indeed the entire surface and recoat the surface immediately thereafter. In doing so, the ghost lines will disappear and the problem will be resolved.
I suspect Aqua Coat has an excellent waterborne topcoat finish, but I have not tried it. I feel guilty. Brian Barry, owner of Aqua Coat sent me some samples. I will try them out soon.