Furniture Finishes
We ll show you kevin s tips for cleaning repairing and restoring finishes without all the messy chemical strippers and tedious sanding.
Furniture finishes. Opaque finishes would include paint both oil and latex as well as some lacquers. For furniture let s break finishes down into two classes with subgroups the two classes being clear and opaque. All these finishes are designed to protect the wood and to bring out its natural beauty and all of them can be assessed in terms of how well they accomplish these objectives.
Feb 13 2020 i adore distressed furniture with a well worn patina and layers of colors showing through. Removing the old finish can be a cumbersome and messy task. You ll find the few materials you ll need such as denatured alcohol wax sticks and touch up markers in the paint and finishes aisle at most home improvement stores.
Furniture finishes can be classified into several basic types. You can sand dry finishes with 240 grit stearated self lubricating aluminum oxide paper usually grey colored. When refinishing furniture you must do the most unpleasant part of the job first.
On bare wood lightly sand the surface with 150 grit sandpaper to remove nicks scratches and to open up the pores of the wood grain. Kevin s expertise is the result of more than 20 years experience working with and learning about wood finishes and furniture repair and furniture refinishing. The easy techniques for restoring old furniture on the following pages will work on any clear finish lacquer varnish polyurethane or shellac.
Varnish penetrating resin shellac lacquer wax and oil. This is where i gather all the tips and advice on how to achieve the look on not so old furniture pieces. In this video wood finishing expert bruce johnson shares tips for refinishing new and old furniture.
You can use water with a few drops of dish detergent for wet sanding. Water is not a solvent it s a carrier for the finish emulsion. For a while early in the process until you start getting down to the wood underneath the mess you may feel that you have completely ruined the piece.