*
I’ve been reading every message I can find here on the topic of wipe on finishes, but the one question I am still in the dark about is whether a sanding sealer is necessary before using either MinWax’s wipe on polyurethane or the 50/50 mix of McCloskey’s Varnish and mineral spirits. I’m finishing a birch table, unstained…..
Well… maybe unstained. This brings up another question. I bought the table at an unpainted furniture store, and bought alder chairs to go with it. The man in the store assured me that they finish similarly (color-wise) but after wiping on some of the Minwax polyurethane to the underside of each, the alder is finishing up much darker – kind of ruddy/reddish. Any suggestions? I don’t mind going a tad darker on the birch, if need be – but I can’t begin to imagine how I’m going to find a stain for the birch that will mimic the hue of the alder – nor am I sure I want to as the ruddiness of the alder isn’t particularly appealing. Arrrgggh, why didn’t I just buy finished?!?!?
Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Replies
*
No sealer. The finish you want to use is self sealing, and sands readily when sufficiently dry. Using a "sanding sealer" would be asking for adhesion problems.
Color correction is easy. Use a VERY thin dye stain, available from most woodcraft supply stores. Trans Tints from Homestead, Microton stains from M L Campess, and Solar-Lux stains from Behlen's are all much more light fast than the old "aniline" stains, but you'll have to thin them way down. Red and green make brown, more or less. You can kill off the red by putting on a HINT of green -- I mean LIGHT. You can always add another coat, but it's hard to take off. You can add red to the stuff that's not red enough.
I mix my own stains most of the time because I do a lot of custom finishes and finish matcing. All I stock in dye stains are red, yellow, blue, and black. Haven't needed anything else in years to make sap stains, toners, and body stains. I do keep earth pigments for wiping stains because they are harder to handle and measure.
Michael R
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled