Regardless of the expertise available on a forum such as this (and there is loads of it) you're faced with the usual problem of differences of opinion and contradictory advice, which when you don't yet have a frame of reference presents you with the age-old problem of not knowing what you should listen to (not
who you should listen to, that's a trap). It's made even more complicated in that you may actually benefit from paying attention to more than one person
even though their advice conflicts; the simple fact is they can both be right as counter-intuitive as that seems.
So, I would strongly recommend you hit the books first. See what your local libraries have before you buy anything, if you're lucky you may not need to buy a single book for now.
With a book on finishing written by one author (as opposed to "edited by") you get a single person's educated/experienced views on the topic without any extraneous noise. It helps avoid the information overload thing early on. Unfortunately IMO the best books on finishing are written by American authors for the American market so with those some translation and substitutions will be necessary; but that's not too difficult, especially with the help of your friends here.
After a while I would suggest reading some older finishing books (Hayward's would be a good 'un, not too large or heavy going) but for now I would avoid them as there's too much in them that doesn't apply today. See
this recent thread for a bit more on this and some American authors to look out for.
Andy P Devon":1q9lyk9y said:
What's all the stuff about sanding down after you finish? (scratching your new finish?)
This can be a very night sanding/scuffing to de-nib, that is, just to knock off little specs of dust that have settled in the finish during drying (bit more related to this at bottom).
At the other end of the spectrum sanding can be much more extensive, to 'flat' a finish for an ultra-smooth result. This can go all the way to very fine sanding with wet 'n' dry papers and then polishing by various means to re-establish a gloss, but on a much flatter surface, so you get a vastly superior look. This tends to avoid the 'plasticy' look in a high-gloss finish.
Andy P Devon":1q9lyk9y said:
What's all this about using steel wool?
Could you be more specific?
Andy P Devon":1q9lyk9y said:
I want to learn to use stuff like BLO, teak oil and shellac .
BLO, do you want to learn how to use it the old way for a full oil finish?
Teak oil would generally be only used for exterior woodwork so you can park this for now if you need to. You can use it indoors, the product is not too dissimilar to most commercial Danish oil products, but there's no need to use either if you don't want to since you can
A mix your own versions of these sorts of finishes quite easily (and at substantially lower cost)
B substitute something else and get a similar result. This doesn't have to be an either/or proposition, nothing stopping you from doing both A and B for different projects in different timbers, or as your whim dictates.
Shellac has multiple uses in finishing, well worth having some around. Best made fresh and used up in a short while in case you haven't read that yet. Also cheap this way and less wasteful since the dried flakes seem to last nearly indefinitely.
Andy P Devon":1q9lyk9y said:
...rather than just slapping on dulux like all the box stores seem to think.
Here's where I wanted to come back to dust nibs.
By Dulux I presume you're referring to a varnish, likely a polyurethane. Nowt wrong with these if they do what you want, and with care you can get a really nice finish with these by a couple of different routes.
The first and the one I would recommend everyone try when they're starting out using varnish is to convert your thickish varnish in the tin to wiping varnish, which as the name suggests you can wipe on (although you don't have to). You just thin the varnish somewhat with additional white spirit in a clean jar and go from there; this is incidentally one of the tricks you'll learn from any decent modern finishing book.
Regardless of whether you use a brush, roller or wad of cloth to apply wiping varnish one of the standard techniques is to then wipe away all or most of the excess. This
greatly reduces the problem of dust nibs, one of the chief advantages of this method – there's so little varnish on the surface and it dries so much faster dust has far less chance to stick. When it does (there's always a spec or two) it doesn't bond as strongly making it far easier to remove; just a swipe with the rough side of brown paper can be enough.
It's not all upside though, because each coat ends up so thin it takes longer to build up a decent layer of varnish on the surface (this would be for looks as well as for maximum protection). But a lot of people think the trade-off is well worth it.
Three coats of wiping varnish could be perfectly sufficient for decorative objects, light-use items and table legs. Two coats never seems like it gives quite the uniform appearance you're after. You'd want to use quite a few more (7-10 maybe) for a tabletop that'll see unprotected glasses and mugs.
Hope that helps a bit.
