What finish?

Hi all,

I am relatively new to woodwork:eek: , at least since high school, and although I know it has probably been visited a couple of hundred times I need help with finishing:confused: .

I have just completed a redgum dining table (cant lift it) but the varnished finish looks rubbish, as does the finish on the 1 chair that I have built (7 to go).

I am about to tear out the orbital sander with 120 grit and start again, but with what is the question, to give me a glossy finish that is hard wearing and not too painful to apply.

A question like this probably bores most of you guys and girls who have been doing this for years but any advice much appreciated and I can then post some photos to boost my own ego if nothing else:D .

Cheers

Bryan

BryanMc, welcome my sugestion is Rustins plastic coating, you can have a satin finnish or polish to a glass like shine, it is resistant to most things if you damage the finnish you can get away with refinnishing the damaged section only

Bryan,

First thing I'd recommend is get hold of The Polishers Handbook by Neil Ellis. You can get it at the sponsors website (ubeaut), also at Carbatec.

Lots of folk on the forum have had good success with Minwax Wipe on Poly for an application like yours.

Get a few products, try it on some scrap, and see what you like.

Be sure to sand well before finishing. If you start with 120, you'll want to go 180, 240, 400 and use some 800 or even 1200 in the finishing, depending on the look you're after.

Tex

Next thing I'd recommend is to crawl through the Pics forum on this site. Most people who post there will tell you what the finish is. You can learn quite a bit from wandering through the forum, and there are quite a few dining tables in there.

You'll find most of the people on the forum don't really like the 'plastic' look that some very high gloss finishes produce. We tend to like our furniture to look like lovingly crafted wood instead of something coming out of a panel beater's paint booth.

That said, four coats of Ubeaut's wax on most finishes will really bring out a shine, make people want to rub their hands all over it.:)

Tex

You have a few choices depending on what you want:-

1) Plastic coated/hard finish. Use an epoxy top coat - Cartabec sells one in a number of tones.
2) A simple varnish like speed clear - washes in water for cleanup and drys fast (2hrs)
3) Shellac, Mix it with metho from shellac flakes or buy pre mixed (Ubeaut is the go here) and rub it on with a cotton cloth. Dry in 15 mins!

No matter what you choose, the ubeaut traditional wax helps all finishes.
My preferance is shellac ( it's the stuff that forms the main ingredient of french polish) and it really brings out the depth of the grain (even when used on veneered plywood).

The best suggestion is to try some of each on scraps of wood or see samples of each finish in person and go from there.

Ciao,

M.

maybe Minwax Wipe-on Poly. Available at Bunnings in satin or gloss. Very hard wearing poly which gives a nice finish. Much better than varnish.

www.minwax.com

I've had great results using Minwax on a kitchen table that requires a hard wearing surface. For tables and other furniture that gets regular use but not abuse I use Organoil's Danish Oil (see pic), which you can get from Bunnies. Applying is simplicity itself. Roughly brush on a coat, wait 30 minutes and wipe off with a clean cloth. Wait 24 hours and sand with 320 or better. Brush on another coat and wait 30 minutes, wipe off. Easy. No worries about streaks or runs or bits of dust getting trapped in the surface like that plastic rubbish (Danish oil penetrates into the timber and then goes hard giving a tough finish that is more than skin deep. If it get scratches you can simply sand the scratch and wipe on some more oil).

Then for a really silky feel, after about 2 weeks a coat of good quality wax and a buff will leave a great finish.