I’d like to know more about which fabrics are the most lint free. I usually go to used clothing stores and get a bag of womens nighties. (so much fun to explain myself to the cashier) The fabrics I think would be the good lint free fabrics sometimes don’t work so good. For instance a polyester fabric that looks all shimery and silky somtimes degrades and hairs up. Whats the best fabric for applying an oil finish?
I am using the rags usually to apply either Minwax Antique Oil Finish or a Watco product.
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Replies
NOT women's nighties! Worst possible fabric. Old T shirts--100% cotton. Old sheets--cotton only. NO polyester, nylon, etc. content. It doesn't "wet".
Easiest to use is paper toweling that doesn't have an embossed design. Shop towels sold in HOme Depot.
My problem is that somtimes polyester works and sometimes it doesn't. There seems to be a difference in the material that I can't identify..?Who cares if it doesn't wet?Paper Towels, are you kidding?respectfully,EliBrookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
http://brookfieldwoodworking.com/
REspectfully? Really. As you see, several others (men, even) also suggested paper towels.
Well, I think you will find paper towels to be an excellent vehicle for wiping on finishes and wiping them off. They are lintless, which is, what you asked for, I believe.
And if you don't see the benefit of a fabric being wettable for finishing needs and projects then I don't think you understand the process.
RESPECTFULLY, NO kidding.
Gretchen
Edited 9/1/2007 2:23 pm ET by Gretchen
"RESPECTFULLY, NO kidding."
That's what I meant as well. Get off of it, this isn't a gender thing!
The paper towel thing just takes me by surpsise.
I learned somthing today, thats why I came here in the first place!!!!-EliBrookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
http://brookfieldwoodworking.com/
Not to beat a dead horse, but you said both of my suggestions had no merit. Both do have merit. What I call "wettability" is important in not causing streaking in applying or wiping finishes.Gretchen
"Paper Towels, are you kidding?" Perhaps you'd like to take this up with Mr. Jewitt also? His web site is:http://www.homesteadfinishing.com
Your response to Gretchen was quite dismissive. I don't blame her for being a little miffed, and I doubt it had anything to do with gender, more with attitude.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 9/1/2007 3:57 pm by forestgirl
Edited 9/1/2007 3:58 pm by forestgirl
Gretchen, for some time I used Viva paper towels -- I think they're the ones that Jeff Jewitt uses/used -- because they're not embossed, they're sturdy and were lint free. It seems to me, though, that lint is becoming a problem with them. Have you used them?? forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
VIVA may be too "high class"==soft and thick, which I think equals "lint".
I think the harder paper towels (the brown in the rest rooms) are too stiff and if used for wiping on a finish will make streaks, which is also why you need non-embossed towels--they don't streak.
The blue shop towels sold in a roll at Home Depot are good--very sturdy, non-embossed, and lintless.Gretchen
G,
I like old T-shirts too - preferably of the quality kind (100% thickish cotton) as some others go hard after a lot of use. The thick ones also generate near-zero lint.
Also, I am wary of T-shirts that have been washed with fabric softener or in hard (limey) water. Stuff can crytallise on the cloth and you may get scratching or some sort of chemical marks.
Also, some T-shirts are printed with stuff that makes them too stiff and then there is the streaking you mention.
In my imagination, I only use silken stuff cast off by beautiful women. The ladywife knows the dreamy expression associated with these kind of thoughts and then there is one sausage less for tea or worse.
Lataxe, generator of sweat-stained T-shirts (yet another reason to go to the gym).
I usually use either cotton trimmings (left over from the t-shirt manufacturing process) or blue shop towels (I forget the brand name, but one of them is thicker, darker, and less linty than the others).
You can get either at paint departments. Lee Valley sells a "high class" version of the cotton wipes, but I haven't tried them.
-Steve
For decades we used washed polo jersey remnants. 100 lb. bails (NEVER USE RED)it bleed.Then high quality paper towels became available, lint free. Professional auto body supply stores sell them in boxes or cases.I hope this helpsRon
I'll give paper towels a try. Thanks.
The oil finish thing is new to me. I usually spray or brush varnish.Brookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
http://brookfieldwoodworking.com/
my favorite is a paper towel made by Scott called Rags. They come in a yellowish box about a foot sq. I cut them to what ever size I need and no lint and quite soft.
I went to our local restaurant supply store and bought several packages of the brown folded paper towels you will see in public washrooms. They hold up better than the usual kitchen towels.
My favorite finishing "wipe" is a bit of an old *wool* sock balled up and wrapped inside a square of heavy cotton T-shirt. The wool holds the finish like a wick and keeps the cotton damp with finish.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
What is the purpose of cheese cloth? Is that something that the old timers used to make there finishing "tampons" ? -EliBrookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
http://brookfieldwoodworking.com/
"What is the purpose of cheese cloth?"
For making cheese.... (Actually, I use it for a number of purposes in the kitchen, such as making anko, a Japanese dish consisting of azuki beans cooked down with sugar.)
And yes, some people do use cheesecloth for various steps during the application of finishes. Go to the Skills & Techniques/Finishing section of the web site and do a search on "cheesecloth" for some articles.
-Steve
believe it or not i have used old cotton baby diapers. they work great. don't know if you have a diaper service nearby
Linens are lint free. They are made out of Flax rather than Cotton. They are expensive new. My wife collects linens and I have access to the not so good ones found in lots from auctions and flea markets. Another product of Flax is Linseed oil. I believe the plants are one and the same.
Linen. A source in any city will be a commercial laundry where they service the restaurant suppliers. Restaurants use a bunch of linen napkins and when they get tatty they remove them from service. Tablecloths work also, but the napkins come in a nice size. There's no color bleeding because by the time you get them, they've been laundered many times.
I have used the "Rags in a Box" by Scott and had excellent results wiping on oil and wipe on poly products. No lint and they held up very well - not a standard paper towel type product. They are also relatively cheap and easy to get - much easier than scrounging for clean rags or buying felt and cutting up.
Both of my local paint stores, including Sherwin Williams, sell 10lb boxes of white cotton jersey rags.
"Another product of Flax is Linseed oil. I believe the plants are one and the same."Right you are. Flax derives from the Germanic name for the plant; in Latin it was called linum, as was the cloth made from it.Linen is the fiber produced from the stems of the flax plant and the seeds, known as flaxseed or linseed are processed for oil, which has been used for centuries in paints and varnishes (and, for a while in the first half of the last century, to make floor tiles - linoleum.BruceT
You can still get genuine linoleum (e.g., http://www.forbolinoleumna.com/).
-Steve
Genuine linoleum is sort of like a fine women.. Hard to find anything better and come in so many different colors!Edit: I forgot And sizes!
Edited 9/7/2007 2:34 pm by WillGeorge
First off let me state I HATE FINISHING because I do (edit)not have the patience for it. However I find purchasing the cotton T shirt cutoffs from a mill by the bag works for me. I get mine at Menards.. (Mill cutoffs?) Hardly ever any lint (I think the cotton goes through many washes/whatever they do at the mill before they do their thing to make whatever)
I also look for linen on sale at the local yard goods places. Nice place to meet old women too!
Just me!
Edited 9/3/2007 10:54 am by WillGeorge
I read in an article some time ago, maybe a year or so, that a man used a pad made from kitchen paper towels. I tried this and had good luck with it . It works and is nearly lint free.
I prefer foam brushes or paper towels as described.
Now, knowing that this is the FINE woodworking forum and none of us would EVER have varying degrees of finish sanding... on some projects that don't get the full smooth-as-glass finish - stick with foam - it doesn't have little splinters to pull out the fibers of towels or cloth.
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