I live in a flood and hurricane zone and have been through a number of hurricanes and have learned the value of creating highly water resistant, if not water proof furniture. After Andrew I lost an entire oak paneled room to roof damage. I used Tung oil and deeply regretted that decision as the entire room was ruined. OTOH, a maple plywood vanity in bathroom was completely done in urethane varnish, was wet for three days and sustained no damage. Neither did any of my floor furniture.
For these reasons I’ve been committed to varnish. However, a recent large project in an open grain wood proved far too time consuming for me to get the grain completely filled and I do not like filler stains and don’t use stains of any kind. For open grains I’d prefer to leave the grain open and use something else that would withstand water as well as varnish. I coat virtually every part of my furniture except for glue joints before assembly. Is there any other finish that is as water proof as varnish?
Dave
Replies
Dave,
Epoxy is certainly at least as water resistant as varnish, and probably much more--it is waterproof. If you completely encapsulate the wood with epoxy it will remain completely waterproof unless and until the epoxy barrier is breached. But I'm sure I wouldn't like epoxy alone as a finish for interior pieces. You could encapsulate the wood with a couple coats of epoxy and then put varnish over that. But still, I doubt this is the solution you're looking for.
As for filling the pores, have you tried wet sanding with an oil? I love the look and feel of wood finished that way. Though it's been bad-mouthed by many on this forum, one of my favorite finishes is to wet sand boiled linseed oil. It leaves that "built up from within" look with a wonderful, silky smooth feel. Wet sanding an oil finish (you can do the same with Danish oil and tung oil) might be an answer for you. The sanded wood dust with the oil fills up the pores; and you can always put another finish, such as varnish, over it.
Alan
You know with open grain wood, the surface has ridges and valleys. The meniscus effect will cause varnish to climb to the top of the ridges, contrary to what you're expectation that it will settle in the valleys. This is what mades the build up so tedious -- you gotta do 5 coats minimum.
BTW, how do you wet sand an oil? My mind is whirling on that one! Surely you don't mean with water.
Dave
Dave, the most "waterproof" finishes are oil based varnish, poly varnish and converstion varnishes and catylized lacquers. The last two are for professional use only as they have real nasty health implications but they are what you see on the tables at Denny's, etc.
Varnish and poly varnish needs to be built to a continuous film thickness to be as "waterproof" as they can be.
Dave,
Wet sanding with an oil finish means to flood the wood with the finish oil of your choice and then use wet & dry sandpaper. Depending on the wood I will use anything from 320 grit up to 600 grit. I keep sanding until there is a good thick slurry all over the top. I let it sit for a while, and then use a cloth wrapped around a block to remove the excess oil by rubbing across the grain. The wood dust and oil mixture will flow down into the pores and fill them up. One coat might not completely fill the pores. Sometimes on very large pore woods, such as red oak, I will do the wet sanding routine four or five times.
Alan
I built a bar out of pecky cypress for a friend a couple of years ago. He liked the "worm holes", but wanted the bar to be water-proof (more like beer-proof). I used a two part epoxy by West Coat to fill the holes, and as a top coat. It came out clear, and hasn't had any liquid pass through it yet. It's fairly expensive, and toxic while it's wet. It cost about $1.00/sq ft.
Len (Len's Custom Woodworking)
Edited 7/18/2002 10:25:05 PM ET by LRUTHERFOR1
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