Q: I stained a guitar red/brown using water soluble dye. After the stain was dry, I dry brushed dark brown water soluble dye around the edges, fading toward the center for a sunburst-like finish. Clear lacquer coats finished the job. Will the dyes bleed into each other over time and become unattractive? A: No. Water [...]
Q: I’ve stained and sealed with Zinsser SealCoat and plan to glaze with a Van Dyke oil-based glaze. I wanted to top with Zar Interior Polyurethane antique flat, but Zar says polyurethane will delaminate off either the glaze or SealCoat, which has no wax, but may contain stearates. Now what? A: First, SealCoat contains no [...]
Q: We’d like to spray Rustoleum hammer finish but do not have any equipment. Can you recommend an inexpensive HVLP system for home/light use? A: Yes, but I’d advise against buying a spray system just for this one job. You can buy Rustoleum hammer finish in aerosol cans under the Universal label. http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=180 Those Universal [...]
Q: We’d like to coat our stripped metal furniture with hammer finish from Rust-Oleum. The local paint person stated this can be applied directly to the metal, but perhaps I am just being old school so I am questioning whether priming first would be better. A: Rustoleum’s hammer finish is in fact fine to use [...]
Q: I just obtained two small table lamps made of burl and the lampshades are of what appears to be birdseye maple veneer. The veneer is fabric backed and very brittle. As a result there are some small voids and cracks in each shade. I plan to back the voids with wood putty and then [...]
Q: I want to fume the ridge beam in my house. Obviously, I can’t simply remove it, and place it in a tent for fuming. What would happen if I painted a light layer of ammonia on it? A: First, fuming only works with woods high in tannin, so before you do anything, figure out [...]
Q: When you say to control the color by how you mix the stain not how you apply I am a little confused. My stain is premixed. It is General Finishes water based dye stain. Can that be thinned using water and do I need to thin it? A: You can thin any stain, should [...]
Q: I am about to start staining and finishing my new maple kitchen cabinets. I decided to use a dye stain. On my sample pieces I applied a wood conditioner then lightly sanded, then applied the stain to the color I wanted. A: Dyes work best on raw wood. Wood conditioners work by inhibiting stain [...]
Q: I built a small table from reclaimed mahogany. There is a lot of variance in the colour and grain pattern. I want to stain this so to even out the colour. What do you recommend? A: Most pigmented stains work very well on mahogany to even coloration, in large part because they take full [...]
Q: I want to tint clear nitrocellulose lacquer to produce a solid, opaque color. What types of colorants can I use? A: The ideal choice is called lacquer paste; essentially lacquer with a dense amount of pigment cut into it. You can find it in a wide range of colors at the same industrial supplier [...]
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