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How To Refinish a Table - Part 5 - The First Clear Coat

Part 4 was about applying stain.  Today we will finally do a clear coat, but it may not be the kind of clear coat you were thinking of.  The first coat on this table will be a spray coat of clear shellac.  Here's why...Silicone based waxes have become quite popular in recent years and contamination from silicone can cause havoc in a finish.  I posted a little bit about this very subject in my "Tip of the Week".  I am not going to take any chances of having blemishes in the finish from silicone contamination.  I have found that the easiest way to avoid problems is just to go ahead and spray a coat or 2 of shellac on the table before I apply my polyurethane.  The shellac will act as a barrier between the silicone and the poly.

Before I apply the shellac, I need to do some last minute prep work.  I need to make sure the stain is absolutely even.  Color has to be consistent.  No blotches.  No sticky spots.  No dust. It must be completely dry.  To be honest, I am never completely satisfied at this point, so I have learned a little trick. 


I simply wipe the surface down with a paper towel, dampened with mineral spirits.  Doing this may lighten the stain slightly, but I gladly trade the little bit of color for the benefits of doing this.  It will give me absoloutely even color and eliminate most of any dust that has accumulated while the stain was drying.

  This table had the original "speckled" stain that was so common for a while.  It had little tiny black paint specks underneath the clear coat.  The owner of the table wanted me to duplicate it. So I need to add some specks before the shellac goes on.  It is pretty easy. I just use a very small amount of black acryilic paint, a little water, and a small, stiff, artists brush.  I mix the water and the paint to make it a little soupy.  Then I dip the brush in the paint, and pull back the bristles with my thumb and release them to create sort of a misty spray.  It seems to work better if I hold the brush up fairly high and don't load the brush with too much paint.  Take your time and get your specks consitsent across the entire table.  Then let it dry completely.



Now it is time to spray the shellac.

I use the spray version because I don't want to disturb any silicone.  I just want to spray over the top of it, and seal it off from future coats.

Use nice even long strokes. Make sure the surface is covered completely.


Here is a little trick to avoid having to tape off edges.

I didn't want to get any shellac on the table skirt, so I held a piece of hardboard, just under the top to block the spray.  Any thin piece of wood or stiff cardboard will work.  It was a real time saver on this project.

When you are done spraying it should look like this.  Can you see some of my applied paint specks?

That's about all there is to applying shellac.  It dries fairly quickly.  If I want to apply a second coat I could do it right over the top of this coat within a couple of hours.  But before I apply polyurethane I will let the shellac cure completely, overnight.

We are closing in on finishing this project.  Next will be about applying polyurethane.  Poly can be a little tricky, so don't miss this next step.

Rory

How To refinish A Table - Part 4 - Applying The Stain

We are finally ready to put some color on this table.  It's been stripped,  washed, taped, and sanded.  Now it's time for some stain.  Here is a pic of the table top ready to go.

Note that the edges are now done and it has good consistent color over the entire top. 

Not long before I apply stain or finish I like to wipe the wood down with mineral spirits and a paper towel.  This cleans up most of the sanding dust and debris.

Can you see the dust collecting on the paper towel?  This is a great little trick.  By wiping it down with mineral spirits, I can also see what the grain is going to look like.

I really like to use oil based stains, especially on antiques.  For one thing, oil based stains seem to cover better.  For another thing, I think the beauty of an oil based stain is unbeatable.  I believe that the more beautiful a finish I can create, the better it is for the environment.  Whenever I refinish something for someone I strive for "heirloom" quality.  I want it to the kind of treasured piece of furniture that they will keep for generations to come.  If I can create an heirloom piece that will be treasured for another 50 years, I have done my job and helped save the planet at the same time.  Think of the reduction in landfill waste if everyone's dining room table was so lovely that there was no reason to buy a new one, except every 50 years or so.  



When I apply stain, I usually use a paper towel.  Paper towels are cleaner than rags and they do not catch on edges as easily.  I also do not have to deal with lint contamination when using a paper towel, and I use less stain too.  I can usually get away with using only 1 paper towel to apply stain to an entire table top.  Very little waste. 


 Make sure your wood is completely dry.  The mineral spirits must be completely evaporated.  Then dip that paper towel in the stain and get to wiping!

There is a distinct possibility that you may prefer to wear gloves during this step.  Don't be stingy with the stain.  I am using a dark walnut here.  Let it soak in for a few minutes.  The directions on my can say 10-15, but that will vary alot, depending mostly on temperature.  The idea is not to let it dry.  You want to wipe off the excess stain before it gets sticky.

Here is the color after I have wiped off the excess stain.  Nice and even.  No blotches.  Consistent color.  I will let this dry overnight.  I want it to be completely dry before the next step.  That is about all there is to staining.  It is not too tough.   You can wipe off your hands with mineral spirits and then wash them with soap and water.

 Make sure your used towels get thrown in your water bucket to avoid a fire hazard.

Next time I will be doing post on applying the first clear coat.  It is a pretty important step.

Keep up the good work out there!

How To Refinish A Table-Part 3-Sanding The Table

This table has what is called a "parquet" veneer top meaning that several pieces of veneer have been lamininated in such a was as to make a geometric design.  In addition the veneer is also "Butterflyed", meaning the grain is matched in the middle.  The easiest way to explain a butterfly veneer application is to imagine 1 piece of veneer that is split in half and then unfolded, and applied to the table substrate with the grains matching up to one another.  The reason all of this is important is that whenever you can, you would like to be able to sand with the grain. This way you avoid unsightly scratches in you wood.  Most tables have grain going only one direction, from one end of the top to the other end, but not this one.  It presents a problem or 2 because of the parquet geometric design. What I did in this case was to tape off each section of veneer and sand it independently and completely by hand. This way I could sand with the grain and avoid some pretty awful scratches and sanding marks.

This picture shows me sanding with the grain, right up to the edge of my tape line.  I use blue masking tape because it is easy to pull off, and I can sometimes even reapply it when doing the next section.  When applying the tape I place it about 1/32 of an inch outside my sanding area.  I take my time and do 1 section at a time.  Here I am using 180 grit.

So how do you know what grit to use? It really depends on the type of finish you are going to do.  On this table I will be doing a very formal polyurethane finish with an oil based stain.  So, in this case I will not use a sandpaper grit finer than 220.  Only later, after I have applied my final coat of polyurethane will I go to a finer grit.  If at this stage I use too fine a grit, my stain will not penetrate as well and my polyurethane will not adhere to the wood as well.  I want the wood to have a little bit of "tooth" when applying poly. 

So, how does a person know when a surface is smooth enough to either quit sanding or go to a finer grade sandpaper?  Here is the easy answer....When the color of the wood is consistent and looks clean, stop. Thats it.  Don't try and judge smoothness. Just look for a nice consistent color across the entire piece of wood.  When the color is consistent, move on to the next step or finer grade. 

Notice how on the right portion of this table it is slightly light in color than the left.  The right side is very consistent in color and is done being sanded.  If you look closely you can also see how the matched grain pattern meets in the middle.  This is an example of butterflying.

I used a sanding block to smooth and clean the edges of the table.  I like to use a sanding block when I can, because it gives me a nice flat result, as opposed to just using my hand.  It is also a little less labor intense.  Sanding blocks are fairly inexpensive and can be real time savers, as well.  There was not the parquet grain to contend with on the edges, so it was pretty easy.  I started with a coarse 60 grit sanding until the edge was clean and the color was consistent.  I then switched to 180 grit to complete it.

Here is the before and after photo.  This should give you a good idea of what clean and consistent color looks like.  I hope this post was helpful.  The next part of this series will be about applying stain.

Have a great day!

Rory

How To Refinish A Table-Part 2-Stripping The Finish

Well, here we go. Stripping the old finish.  This gets a bit messy but it's just part of creating the masterpiece.  I put a photo above showing  some of the tools I often use when doing this job.  In addition to what you see here you may want to include a small wire brush and a paint scraper.  Another thing I do is to keep a hose handy and a bucket of water.  The hose is for safety reasons.  No matter how careful you are, even if you wear goggles and gloves, there is always an odd chance of being splashed with paint remover and needing access to a water hose.  The bucket of water is to put rags and paper towels in when they are saturated with a flammable substance such as paint remover.  Don't let this part of it scare you.  You just need to take some simple precautions.

Here you see the spot on the tabletop where the grandaughter spilled the nail polish.  This is the problem I was hired to solve.

The first thing I do is apply a coat of paint remover with an old natural bristle brush.  I am not wearing gloves here, but you will probably want to.  This particular brand of remover is easier on my hands than most and I am pretty used to it.

I like to use a "semi-paste" paint remover.  It is fairly thick and it stays wet longer than the regular liquid kind.  After I apply it with a brush, I let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes, then I scrape it off with my paint scraper.  Be careful not to gouge the surface of the wood with your scaper.  The parquet surface of this table is a thin veneer and you do not want to damage it.  You may want to do a second coat of paint remover.  That's fine, but especially with veneers, less is better.  You don't want to cause delamination of the glue and end up with lifting veneer.

After the remover has been scraped up, I take a natural bristle scrup brush, some dish or laundry soap, a bucket, and some cold water and quickly scrub the whole thing down.  Note that I said quickly. You don't want to water log the wood.  You just want to quickly scrub off the leftover residue from the paint remover, rinse it well with more clean cold water, then wipe off the excess water.  Some people are apalled by this step including some old time woodworkers, who argue that you risk raisng the wood grain, warping, veneer issues, etc.  But this is the way I have done it for over 3 decades, and the process works.  Just remember that all you are doing is scrubbing off the paint remover residue and rinsing it off fairly quickly.  This scrubbing step probably only took me a total of about 5 mintes to do the entire table top.

And here is the result.  Nice, clean, and ready for sanding.

Here is the before and after.  What little bit of soapy film you see will easily be taken care of in the sanding step.  There are some challenges to face in sanding a parquet veneer top, so that will be in Part 3. 

Until next time,

Rory

How To Refinish A Table - Part 1

I am often hired to do comission work, by interior designers who need something special done, or by an individual who wants their fine antique restored.  The calls I get are always varied in nature and I pretty much take on everything that gets thrown my direction.  I find that after 35 years of projects that if I have never done it, that I can probably figure it out.  So, I get this call the other day from a really nice woman who needed her dining room table refinished.  I went out to her home to give the estimate and she showed me this great big formal oak dining room table with beautiful parquet veneer. 

At one end of the table near the center there was a large deterioration of the finish.  I asked what it was from and she told me her grandaughter had accidentally spilled nail polish on it.  In an effort to clean it up, it just got worse and worse.  It was an expensive table that matched her other furniture in the dining room.  Replacing it was not really an option.  So, she hired me to do the repair.

The repair I decided that this one needed was to completely strip the table top only and refinish it.  I am going to post a series of articles showing how I go about doing a formal, heirloom quailty finish using a hand rubbed polyurethane technique.  This post is part 1 of the series.  When I am done it will exceed the original quailty when the table was new.  It will be more durable, have more lustre, and there will be virtually no trace of the damage from the nail polish.  The next post in the series will be about stripping the old finish.  Extremely few woodworkers do a hand rubbed finish anymore and even fewer attempt to do it with oil-based polyurethane, so stay tuned.  This should be a great project.  -Rory-