Thread: Finish for red cedar T&G

Don, How does Watco dry rock hard with sawdust? It's an oil/varnish blend; which dries to a rubbery consistancy when it dries on a hard surface. Are you using a watco varnish instead of an oil/varnish blend?

Well, that is interesting. Are all the drawers the same size? If so, I'd move the lighest ones to the bottom when you finally get this solved. Do you have any of the light cherry for experimentation? I'd use the sun then go to the stain or clear coat tinting, testing.

Why not do it with a paste wood grain filler. That is what it is made for. I dont know what finish you plan on using so I will give generic information. Normally the grain filler is darker than the rest of the wood. This has been found to be more pleasing to the eye. The colorant in the grain filler will also act like a stain and darken the wood also if used directly on top of the stain or unprotected wood. The usual procedure is to stain the...

Quote: Originally Posted by J. Scott Holmes Almost all finishes are safe for kids and or food once they have dried and cured. No "almost" about it. All of them currently marketed should quality once fully cured. (Which can be in the neighborhood of a month for most finishes) I happen to like shellac for this kind of thing, however...after all, they put it on candy to keep your hands from getting messed up and on medications...

>>> Would it be acceptable to use the gloss for the 1st 2 coats and then apply the semi-gloss as the final coat? The gloss of the final coat determines the final gloss.

+1 on shellac. See how Zinsser Sealcoat does ya (from BORG). Cheap and easy. It's dewaxed and slightly blonde. So if you want more protection later, you can put any coat right on top of it. It's also thin enough to pad. Danish oil is also easy. Gotta let it dry in between coats longer than shellac, but you have to be a real maroon to mess up the application (although I have managed to do that in the past: Watch for bleeding on...

I am tired of my decent wood working being ruined by horrible finishing. Right now I do have a cheep Hf hvlp gun I use with my compressor. The compressor is big enough but the gun I have has a large needle and I use it to spray latex. It throws out way to much oil base and would flood a work piece with something as thin as dye. The Earlex 5000 is on sale in eagle catalog for $299 ($40 off reg) I understand this is a fairly good spray system...

yea perhaps i oversimplified, i should've noted "interior" varnishes denoting short oil varnishes, scott's clarifications are correct. exterior varnishes don't really apply to this discussion of an inside table. waterlox makes a polyurethane varnish, i'm not sure if it's tung oil based like their other varnishes though. if it is, it's the only one i know of.

Quote: Originally Posted by William Hutchinson I have the DVD set and consider it a tremendous reference for woodworkers learning and improving finishing techniques. I would suggest that you visit his website and watch the previews and the other free stuff. This will give you a taste of how the information is presented. The videos are not professionally produced and sound quality can be a distraction. If you want a step-by-step approach, this...

BLO is boiled linseed oil.