Finish question

Conversion Varnish

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

If you can spray use conversion varnish for durability and good looks.

Warning: Males now days seem to carry knives and cell phones where they rub the seat back posts. Clip on knives are worst. I have serious damage to the right posts next to the seat in 2 of my chairs from thoughtless males with these adornments.

Re: Conversion Varnish

Tom Norton

How is it for repairability?

Re: Finish question

David Yoho

I built six dining room chairs of cherry almost 25 years ago still in use today. All I used was Watco Danish Oil and wax. I applied many coats of the oil - rubbing the final two coats with 600-grit wet/dry paper. I waited a week and waxed and buffed them. To this day they have a pleasant sheen and look great.

Unless you have some specific reason to go beyond a simple oil finish, I think you could save yourself some effort and money by not adding a film finish. When it comes to repairing scratches, there's probably nothing easier than an oil finish.

Re: Finish question

Dick Coers

I've seen antique chairs that get a sticky film on the back from hand oils, or food oils , or something. You can scratch the crud off with a finger nail. I always assumed it was a shellac finish, but I would prefer a film finish over an oil and wax.

Re: Finish question

jesse cloud

Chairs really take a beating. When my mother was living with us, she was in a wheel chair, and lets just say she never let furniture slow her down. A couple of chairs have bad dings and one table leg is badly beat up.

I finished the dining set with a complicated schedule of dyes and a topcoat of Behlen's Rock Hard varnish. The varnish has held up well for 15 years now, except for the wheel chair dings. Unfortunately, the varnish and some of the dyes are no longer made, so it would be very difficult to reproduce, which I think means I need to refinish the whole set (arrrghh!)

I still haven't decided which way to go, but I'm leaning to oil. I will probably start downsizing things in a few years and oil repairs will probably be about the best I can do.

Both sides of the argument make sense, though!

Re: Finish question

Don Stephan

I've been told that is what nitrocellulose lacquer does over time.

Re: Finish question

Don Stephan

If you are considering a wipe on finish, have you ever tried mixing your own oil-varnish blend or wiping varnish? In one of his books he wrote he thought a mix of 1/9th BLO, 4/9ths varnish and 4/9ths mineral spirits warmed up the wood well and had a hefty amount of varnish resin for protection. I've been using a wiping varnish of equal parts mineral spirits and P$L 38 alkyd varnish and very pleased with the look on cherry wooden bowls. My red oak cereal bowl has been used daily for over two years now and no water damage or finish failure.

Whichever direction, consider extensive practice and testing first.

Where did you get P&L 38?

Re: Finish question

Tom Norton

Don, I have heard of that recipe but I thought it was equal parts of all 3 items.

yes

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

nitrocellulose lacquer plus body fat and oil yields sticky crud.

Not the best

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

There is a mistaken notion that one can make a wipe on varnish by diluting it with stuff that isn't varnish. Well, in a sense you can but the result is more a cured oil with its inferior properties, than varnish which can be hard and durable. To get the properties of varnish with a wipe on convenience one needs to buy a varnish formulated to be wiped. It escapes me why finishers use this 1/3,1/3,1/3 recipe.

Re: Where did you get P&L 38? *LINK*

Bob Entwisle in NJ

There is a 'Store Locator' feature on the P&L web site.

Bob in NJ


http://www.prattandlambert.com/product-selector/homeowner/stains_clears/38_clear_varnish

Re: Finish question Durability VS repairability

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

I personally lean heavily toward repairability. When we remodeled my son's home a few years ago we shellacked all the (new) woodwork. I also finished all the new Cherry kitchen cabinets with Behlen Qualalacq nitrocellulose Lacquer. It has held up very well. There were some damage over the years from dogs and children which would have created hard to repair issues had we used varnish.

The woodwork can be "refreshed" quickly by wiping on a new layer of shellac. There were some scratches on the baseboard that required a "touch-up" of stain, but after that was done and the area re-coated with shellac the damage was undetectable. To each his own, but repairability is also the reason I use Hot Glue to repair chairs.

The methods I use may not be for everyone but works well for me. It takes far more effort to repair a hard film surface than the durability is worth for me. I also collect firearms and only use either pure Tung Oil or Blo as finishes for the furniture on the firearms.