Michael Dresdner

Q: I need to put a brand name on my guitars. I’d like to use a stencil or ink stamp under the clear coat. What do you think?
A: Either will work, provided you choose the right medium for your stencil or ink stamp. What’s important is to use a paint or ink that is compatible with the finish below and above it, but not one that uses the same solvent, or the stencil or inked area is likely to spread and get blurry. There are a lot of options. For opaque ink stamp work, waterbased acrylic artist or craft paints will do just fine provided they are not applied too thickly. For stencils, you can spray on another color from an aerosol. If the finish is lacquer, you can use the same lacquer for the stencil, since it is compatible and will dry quickly enough to not create blurring problems. Beyond that you can order decals, rub on transfer numbers, use silk screening, or a host of other means to add your brand name.

Q: I’m finishing a guitar in Krylon Special Purpose clear Lacquer over Satin Nickel Metallic over gray primer. The clear coat has some orange peel. I’m afraid to wet sand and buff it because I previously sanded through the finish at the edges and had to start over with bare wood. Since the finish looks good, I’d like to keep using the spray paint and just change the clear coat. Should I get a compressor spray outfit and spray clear nitrocellulose over the acrylic?
A: That’s one option, but there are others, and better ones at that. For one thing, nitrocellulose lacquer is amber, and will get more amber with time, while acrylic lacquer is clear and stays that way. Thus, even if you were to switch to a spray rig, I would suggest sticking with acrylic clear topcoat, which is available from most industrial suppliers and auto paint stores. However, there’s no real reason to go that far. You can simply add more clear coats the same way you added the first; with an aerosol can. With practice you can spray without orange peel. Working in a cooler room can sometimes help slow the set up time enough to give you better flow out also. Once you have built up enough clear, you can carefully sand it smooth and add more, or if there is enough material, simply rub it at that point. Granted, it takes a whole lot longer, and many more coats, when you are using aerosol cans, but you can still get the same final results and avoid the expense of setting up a spray rig. Just be patient.

Q: I’m trying to finish a secretary project. I’ve done part of it with General Finishing wipe on semi-gloss urethane and I guess I got lucky, because now I can’t get the same results without dust and debris setting in. If you do a semi gloss finish is there a way to erase the nibs and have a smooth clean result?
A: Yes, there is a way to erase dust nibs, and I’ve talked about it quite a bit in these pages, but there is also a way to avoid them. You can search for “rubbing” and get more in depth discussion, but for now, let’s go over both options at least briefly.
Any finish that is sufficiently thick can be rubbed out, and that process removes dust nibs. Start by lightly sanding with 400 grit or finer paper to remove the nibs, then restore the sheen by rubbing. You can rub to satin using 0000 steel wool and paste wax, or rub to semi-gloss by replacing the paste wax with automotive rubbing or polishing compound. The pairing of polishing compound with 0000 steel wool gives you a slightly higher sheen than steel wool lubricated with wax.
You can avoid all this by how you wipe the finish. In truth, wipe on finish should be called wipe off finish. If you put it on too thickly, it can pick up dust, but if you wipe it off completely, it won’t. That means you need many more coats to get the build you want, but since each coat goes on and off so quickly, and it is so easy to regulate it if you simply wipe off all you can, leaving only the thinnest layer of residual oil varnish, it’s really no big deal. It will take more time, but not more work.

Q: Can I put one coat of oil based polyurethane on some drawers, wait eight hours or so, and then overcoat the oil based polyurethane with several topcoats of waterbased polyurethane?
A: Sometimes. That is to say, some waterbased polyurethanes will adhere to some oil based polyurethanes, but not all will do so. I’d let the oil based finish dry thoroughly (at least 24 hours), then add one coat of Zinsser SealCoat, which will ensure good bonding between the oil and water no matter which brands you are using.

Q: There’s a method I want to try; waterbased dye, seal, gel stain left dark in corners and wiped to simulate wear, top coat. How can I brush top coat using varnish without screwing up the gel, since varnish needs scratches to hold to?
A: No it doesn’t. Just let the gel dry thoroughly so that it does not get moved around by the brush, and flow the finish off the brush as opposed to scrubbing. That technique will allow you to easily topcoat this sort of glazed finish without any problems, and oil based varnish will easily adhere to dried oil based gel stain.

Q: Can I add dry pigment to lacquer to color it?
A: In theory, yes. In practice, it is almost impossible to get pigment powders to disperse uniformly in liquids. When we add them in the industry we use tools specifically designed for forcing pigments to combine with liquids, such as ball mills and high shear mixing blades. Unless you do some formulating on the side, you probably don’t own these machines, and you will find that trying to either stir most pigments into lacquer, or incorporate it with a drill bit mixer, will be an exercise in frustration. In addition to mixing tools, formulators often incorporate dispersal and suspension agents into the mix to keep the pigment from settling too quickly to the bottom of the container, and allowing it to remix easily. Odds are you don’t have access to those ingredients either.

Q: I have a lot of tubes of various oil paints on hand. Could I use oil paints as a pigment to add to lacquer?
A: If you are talking about concentrated oil colors in paste form in tubes, yes you can mix a small amount into lacquer, but don’t try to add too much. Even with just a bit, it will make the lacquer dry slower and set to a softer film; add too much and you will have a finish that takes forever to dry and is very soft indeed.

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Q: I am using McFadden nitrocellulose through a standard spray gun. I just successfully shot my first guitar and am working on another which I would like to tone with a dark opaque to light translucent wine red on the headstock veneer and carved maple top. I am having a hard time determining if I should color the wood before applying lacquer or if I should mix a pigment into the lacquer.
A: First, McFadden has gone out of business, but have no fear; Seagrave Coatings bought their formulas and intends to continue their fine line of guitar lacquers. I’ve spoken with the president of Seagrave and feel quite confident we will be as happy with them as we were with McFadden.
As for the toner, while either can be done, it is far easier to color between coats of clear finish than it is to color the raw wood. However, I would not add pigment to the lacquer; I would add dye. Use an oil soluble dye predissolved in solvent, or use a universal dye concentrate or NGR dye. Enough coats of dyed lacquer will indeed look opaque, so you can get the hiding characteristics you want at the very dark edges. In addition, you can maintain the translucency you need as the corona graduates to the lighter center.

Q: Where can I get information on custom color stain? We can’t find the color we want for an entertainment center. Can you teach us how to mix our own?
A: I can indeed, and in fact, have done so in all four of my books on finishing and many times in magazine articles. However, there is a much simpler alternative that may be just the ticket in this instance. Let someone else mix your custom stain for you. Here’s how.
Go to the paint or home store where you will find a myriad of paint chip samples on the display wall. Find the color paint that is the same as the color of stain you want, and have the clerk mix a small can of that color in low cost latex wall paint. Take it home and reduce it 100%, that is, half paint and half water, and you have made a custom color wiping stain. Flood it onto the wood and wipe off as much or as little as you want to get not only the color you want, but the density of stain color as well. This custom stain is easy to use, inexpensive, and is compatible under just about any clear finish you have chosen.

Q: I’ve been using cellulose sanding sealer on my woodturnings. What’s the difference between it and Zinsser SealCoat, and which is better? I normally use wipe on polyurethane as my finish.
A: Better is a personal judgment you must make, but I can certainly tell you the differences. Cellulose sanding sealer is lacquer laced with stearate, a soft soap that adds loft and thickness to the lacquer. It sands easily and tends to powder under sandpaper. However, some finishes, including many polyurethanes, can have adhesion or compatibility problems with stearated sealers. For that reason, I generally suggest SealCoat under such finishes. SealCoat is pure dewaxed shellac, and although it does not sand quite as easily as stearated sanding sealer, it is compatible under just about any finish, and offers more clarity as well.