This is my first time posting so I appreciate any advice that someone out there may be able to provide.
I’m a novice and am in the finishing stages of my first real project, a maple nightstand. I’m following a set of instructions from Jeff Jewitt on producting an “Early American” maple finish. There are several steps – I am currently at the glazing stage. The instructions call for applying a glaze with a few added pigments on top of the shellac that I previously applied. I lightly sanded the shellac coat with 320 grit paper and then a light brushing with garnet steel wool. The directions for the glazing call for it to be applied, wait 3-5 minutes and then wipe off. I think I’m doing something wrong because after doing this on the tabletop 2 times the color really hasn’t changed at all.
Did I perhaps not sand the surface enough? Am I not waiting long enough or is it just supposed to be a subtle color enhancement? The glaze was a chocolate color when I applied it – as the instructions said it should be.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks – Allen Robinson – Atlanta, GA
Replies
My guess is that you were too thorough in wiping off the glaze, and you wiped off all of it. Some of it has to stay after the wipe off. How much depends on what effect you want to achieve. You can have more glaze at the edges and less in the middle, you can have a very faint glaze, or a heavy one. Make a practice board with different glaze thicknesses, which you get by how much you remove. Then you can look at several options and pick what you like on the project.
Thanks for the help. You are definitely correct that I wiped off too much. The only thing is that by wiping at all with a clean tshirt rag I was unable to wipe only part of it off and have it be even. By applying lighter pressure I ended up with a fairly uneven amount of color.
Try using a clean paint brush (my glazing brushes are 2" wide pig hair). I use a rag to clean the brush I am working with to control the amount of pigment in the brush. This combined with the intensity of brush force and the amount of brushing you do will determine the amount of glaze pigment retained on the piece.
If you need to darken the piece significantly using glazes, you may need to apply several coats of glaze between several layers of finish so that you do not show the brush strokes of the glaze.
There are many techniques for "brushing" out glaze -- you can "pound" the end of the brush to get a different effect, you can pound and twist, etc., etc.. At this point, you might want to read more about faux finishing to learn more about the various techniques and tools available for various effects.
That's a great suggestion. In the last hour I went back to the drawing board and did the following. I let the glaze sit for 10 minutes (instead of five) and then I took my rag and ever so lightly dragged it across the surface over and over. I left it darker along the edges and lighter towards the middle, trying to mimic the look of an old piece. I ended up being very pleased with the result. I guess as with anything practice makes perfect.
I think I will try your brushing technique on the legs and rails and see how it turns out. The nice thing is that there is a lot of room for error - if you don't like it you wipe it off and start over!
I really do appreciate you both taking the time to reply.
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