Dye Application?.

Re: Not necessarily

Jesse Cloud

#1 shellac is my go to wash coat, but I use a glue wash (10 percent titebond 90 percent water) on African Mahogany when the grain is particularly porous. Got the idea from Teri Masachi and it works like a charm.

And yes, I use your advice, Bill, to always test a proposed technique on scrap!

Re: Dye Application?.

Tom Norton

Sprayed the first coat today with a HVLP then followed up with a quick wipe down. Jeff Jewitt's suggestion.

Went well. So tomorrow coat #2. Just want it to really dry.

some clarification

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

From your comment I don't think you understood the information.

"reasonable place to start is about 10% solids (about 1 part of what got bought and 3 parts solvent) "

Typical finish products sold in the store are 25-40% solids with 35% being a good guess if the product information doesn't provide this information. So a dilution that I suggested as a good place to start results in about a 10% solids. Diluting Zinser shellac 1:3 will result in about 10%, for example.

"Prestain/conditioner" is really a wash coat of dilute varnish, no more than 10% solids.

Zinser shellac is so cheap compared to making your own this is a better place to start when preparing a shellac wash coat. But again, one diddles with the % solids until the wash coat does what it needs to do. If you make your own you could make 1# as a place to start but I find this concentration a bit too high for a wash coat prior to stain. This concentration is pushing a concentration of a sealer or grain raiser.

To measure % solids, something I have never needed to do, one weighs a sample of the product, evaporate the solvent and weight what is left. My point was that the wash coat concentration is arrived at by empirical testing or experience, not a formula.

Re: Dye Application?.

Tom Norton

Coat #2 went on without a hitch!

Now it's clear. Thanks.