Finishing

It’s finally happened. On Nov. 22, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its official removal of methylene-chloride paint and finish strippers from the consumer market. [...]

When brushing a finish or paint onto large flat surfaces such as tabletops or cabinet doors, use an airplane-like landing motion with your brush when making contact with a surface near an edge. [...]

If you have ever sprayed the inside of a cabinet, or even a deep drawer, with a fast-drying finish such as lacquer or catalyzed lacquer, you have surely experienced dry spray settling on the [...]

My wife loves watching house restoration shows on TV. The other day she mentioned to me that the paint on every surface the host had stripped in this one house had come off so easily and cleanly. [...]

A finishing topic that gets far too little coverage is aerosol finishing. Aerosols are widely available in four common finishes: lacquer, oil-based polyurethane, water-based finish and shellac. [...]

A woodworker friend emailed me with a problem. He had turned a face-grained bowl from what he described as “grainy” walnut. To finish it he was using Watco Danish Oil, and his problem was that [...]

You may have noticed that acetone is becoming more widely available. This is primarily because it’s the only commonly available solvent that is classified as an exempt VOC solvent. VOC is the [...]

Boiled linseed oil and 100% tung oil are the two widely available drying oils. Though called “drying oils” both dry adequately only when applied very thin. If the excess isn’t wiped off after [...]

When it comes to finishing products, what happens in California doesn’t stay in California. It usually spreads across the country. So when a California friend emailed to tell me that denatured [...]

I know that a lot of readers use shellac for finishing. Of all finishes, shellac is probably the easiest to use when it comes to cleaning and storing brushes because shellac dissolves easily in [...]

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law in Denmark got very severe burns on her lower legs from a gasoline explosion. Her friend had piled up a lot of brush and wanted to burn it. So he pored on some [...]

If you’ve done much woodworking, it’s very likely that you have experienced some dents and gouges. Both are flaws in the wood. But they are not the same thing, so they should be treated [...]