Replies

1. 
   SteveSchoene | May 28, 2006 06:18am | #1

   You should decide first if you want to apply a light coat of oil to enhance the grain (or in the view of some, bring out blotching).  I favor grain enhancement but it is purely a personal decision (either you or the client).

1. 
   rjones69 | May 28, 2006 04:33pm | #2

   Sounds like a pretty good idea.  With that in mind, how long would you let the oil cure before you applied the lacquer?

   Thanks for the tip

2. 
   forestgirl | May 28, 2006 07:54pm | #3

   Found this site from a post in another thread.  Has some pretty good info and lots of color images from different approaches.  Doesn't go into "blotching" much though. 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

3. 
   bigfootnampa | May 28, 2006 10:38pm | #4

   Spraying with lacquer strikes me as a very poor idea.  Even the catalyzed lacquers are not quite up to snuff for conference tables.  I'd use some wipe on polyurethane instead.  Or I'd spray on a conversion varnish.  I recently have been redoing a set of cabinets which were finished pretty much clear over very poorly selected wood (lots of sapwood streaks mixed with nice heartwood).  I had great results with an airbrush spraying a tinted polyurethane to even and darken the colors and then overfinished with a poly clear to resheen.  One piece that was completely unfinished had some issues with blotching stains due to the geometry of the raised panels and I'd wash coat that if I had it to do over but I made it look quite nice anyway.  Usually cherry finishes include some toner or tinted topcoat work to even out contrasts a bit and oftentimes staining too (people are loath to wait for that great burgundy look that comes with age).