A: Best? The best would be a moisture cured urethane, but it is not easy to come by. Offhand, I know of only one company in Brooklyn, NY currently selling it, and they sell primarily to the industry, not to homeowners. The product is extremely durable in that sort of setting, but because of the chemical involved, must be handled both with great care and proper safety equipment. By the way, I will assume you are back down to bare wood, since this finish is not appropriate over an existing finish. On the other hand, if you prefer something less than the best, but still quite adequate and more accessible, you can go with oil based polyurethane or spar varnish. As Hallack Brendan once said, “sometimes the best becomes the enemy of the good.”

A: It’s not that uncommon, and it’s an easy fix. Mask off the tile and grout very well with blue painter’s tape, then remove the finish on the oak. He can do that with paint remover, by scraping and sanding, or in some cases with a so called “cool stripper,” a half and half mixture of lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol paired with a coarse nylon abrasive pad. Once the stripping is done, remove the masking and mask again with clean tape before refinishing. I’d go with an oil based wipe on gel polyurethane, like the Rockler Polyurethane that has my picture on the label. The worst case scenario is that if the masking is less than perfect, he may stain a bit of the grout. If so, once the finish has cured, simply re-grout the stained area.

A: Even though I have not seen it, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that what you are seeing is not what you think it is. Opaque stains do not work well on rosewood, and it is for good reason that no one attempts that. However, when rosewood is exposed to light, it fades to a light brown, but the darker figure lines remain. What results is exactly what you have described. The fading is relatively shallow, and sanding it re-exposes the original dark color; again fitting in with what you have described.

There are three things you can do, and all three require complete removal of the current finish. Sand the rosewood headstock overlay until it is all dark, and let the fading process start over; bleach the rosewood, then stain whatever color you want; or stain the rosewood with a very strong yellow orange dye. That third one may or may not get you all the way to the color you want, but it will mimic sun fading at least to a limited degree.

Q: I’ve read that wipe on gel does not offer sufficient protection for a kitchen or dining room table top. Is this true?
A: No, but that deserves some clarification. As a rule of thumb, more build means more protection. Because wipe off finishes, such as gel polyurethane, leave such very thin coats on each application, you might need a whole lot of them to get the sort of build you might want for a table top. They are designed for applying very thin finishes, and done correctly, are very easy to apply. However, they are not meant for fast build up of thick coats. That’s not to say you can’t build a coat with them. You can, but it will take more than a dozen coats, applied at the rate of one per day or slower. Even at that it will not be as much build up as three brushed coats. Build up can be misleading, though; a dozen or more wiped off coats provides more protection than you might think, and requires less practice than brushing smoothly. Still, brush vs. wipe on is a matter of speed of build up vs. ease of application. Does that help?

Q: I sanded an oak door landing and stained it with Varathane premium wood stain. I properly wiped off the excess after waiting five or so minutes. Now, after 24 hours, I am still getting occasional wet spots or sweating on the surface. I have been wiping them with a cotton cloth but I need to know when I can finish the wood.
A: You can finish when it stops sweating, or as it is often called, weeping. Until then you will have to continue to wipe off the beads of stain that form at the mouth of the pores. For future reference, there are several things you can do to either mitigate or prevent the problem. If you are using oil based stain on open pore wood, like oak, wipe it off immediately and very aggressively. Go back immediately using a stiff bristle brush to scrub the excess stain out of the pores, and wipe again. The combination of quick, aggressive wipe off and pore scrubbing will eliminate most, if not all, of the weeping. Other options include using a waterbased stain or an oil based gel stain, neither of which weep.

Q: Two years ago I stripped our hardwood floors and redid them completely using your products. I used a poly that didn’t offer much sheen but was a bit disappointed in the result. What is the process if I want to take off what is there down to the stain and redo it?
A: First, let me clarify that I do not sell any products, so no products can be thought of as mine. I am simply a finish consultant, and will answer questions on this blog about any brand or product. As for the process, it’s fairly simple; sand the floor down to the raw wood, which, by the way, will remove the stain, then stain and finish it in higher gloss.

Q: My husband put a good size surface scratch in the floor finish by moving a piece of furniture. Will it come out if I refinish the floor.
A: Yes, as long as the scratch is in the finish and not deep into the wood.

Q: I recently made an octagonal table top out of leftover red oak flooring. I wiped an oil based red mahogany penetrating stain on the sanded, raw wood. When I put on the second coat there appeared one strip about an inch wide where the stain just wiped off leaving an unsightly light area in contrast to the deep color of the rest of the table top. There is some variation in color and shade, obviously, from board to board, which I expected and am fine with, but this area is almost the shade of the raw wood and sticks out like a sore thumb. What can I do?
A: The easiest way to blend colors after staining is with tinted topcoat applied between the first and second coats of clear finish. You can mix your own or buy some finishes, such as polyurethane, already in tinted form, both in liquid and aerosol versions. Some companies, like Varathane, match their tinted polyurethanes to their wood stains, making blending a fairly easy task.

Q: What is a good, sprayable gloss finish for a bass guitar made of several woods?
A: Lacquer is certainly the most user friendly for instruments. It is easy to apply, repair and buff, and it dries quickly. Because you are using multiple woods, it would be wise to seal the instrument first with one coat of Zinsser SealCoat.

Q: How do I stop the oil from coming out of woods like wenge, cocobolo and rosewood when I apply lacquer?
A: The term oily wood is a misnomer. While some woods are highly resinous, there is no oil in wood, so there is no oil to come out. Some woods may bleed color, meaning the color can migrate into the lacquer. Usually, that’s not a serious issue, but if it is, seal the wood first with a coat of Zinsser SealCoat. Once it dries, it should block further bleeding. Incidentally, wenge is neither particularly resinous nor likely to bleed, though the other two, both of which are dalbergias, are resinous and will bleed color.

Q: I plan to sand interior mahogany doors with 180 and 220 grit, stain one coat, let it dry, sand it with 320 grit, then apply three coats of polyurethane, sanding between these coats with 320 grit. After the final finishing coat, let it dry and cure for one month then follow your recommend scrubbing process, sanding 1000 grits and 000 steel wool with paste wax and then buff it with buffer. Is the right process for interior doors?
A: Nope. Let’s go through this a step at a time, starting with sanding. Unless someone else already sanded the door to 120 or 150, you need to start with a coarser paper than 180. Typically, we start sanding at 80 and go up from there. You can stop at 180 garnet, or 220 AlOx.
Stain should be flooded on liberally, then wiped off completely, leaving only what the wood has absorbed. Never sand after staining, since it will remove the stain you just applied, and do it unevenly at that.
Once the stain is dry, apply your finish at the rate of one coat per day. Sand between coats only if you need to in order to smooth roughness, dust nibs or brush marks. Otherwise, sanding between coats is not necessary as long as the next coat goes on the next day.
To rub to satin, wait a couple of weeks, remove any dust nibs with 400 or 500 grit paper, then rub with the grain using 0000 steel wool lubricated with paste wax. For gloss, wait six weeks, sand through the grits from 600 to 1200 or higher, then rub with automotive rubbing and polishing compounds.

Q: I am trying to refinish an oak floor that is in a home built around 1960. It has a clear finish, but when I start sanding with the ezV sander, the finish clumps, sticks to the sandpaper and clogs. I have no idea what the finish is, but I am looking for suggestions on removing it so that I don’t have to stop every couple of minutes and scrape the flakes off the sandpaper.
A: The ezV sander is very user friendly, but not very aggressive. You might want to switch to a more aggressive type of sander, such as a drum sander, to remove the finish. That allows you to use a coarser paper at first, such as 24 grit. There’s no easy way to avoid clogging if you are removing a soft finish, but there are methods other than sanding. For instance, scraping off the finish with a ship’s scraper, then sanding afterwards, is more labor intensive but less frustrating. The same is true of stripping the floor first with paint remover; messier and smellier, but it does eliminate clogging expensive paper.

Michael Dresdner
www.michaeldresdner.com
Metaphors be with you.