Homebrew finish

Re: Homebrew finish

Tim of San Leandro

>proportions can be varied at will.

I prefer to either:

Used heated oil only...BLO or tung heated as hot as you can handle.

Or use 1/2 BLO or tung and 1/2 mineral spirits for first coat. Then subsequent coats are 1/3 blo/1/3 ms/1/3 varnish or poly or neutral base oil alkyld paint.

after curing for as long as I can stand it, wax.

a lot like to do the 1/3 of each for every coat.....

Re: Homebrew finish

Alan Hamilton

>Andy,

I think you're going to be flooded. Most folks I know who are a little more interested than most in finishing will have several different recipes. I'll take it easy on you and give you only two of my favorites.

First, an old standby: I make my own wax concoctions, some of which I use as the only finish. My favorite general-duty wax, that I like to use over shellac, is a mixture of carnuba and bees wax.

Carnuba wax, as I'm sure you know, is very hard stuff--too hard to be used by itself by someone as impatient and lazyas I. I soften the carnuba with bees wax to get it to a working consistency, and use turpentine to keep it soft enough to apply. I know I've given more than one answer about the ratio, which means I'm not too sure. I kind of wing it as I go along. I melt carnuba in a double boiler, then add bees wax. I take a bit out, cool it to room temperature, and give it a try. I usually wind up adding more bees wax. After I get it just right (ha!) I take it outside and add the turpentine. I apply it with 0000 steel wool, or its plastic equivalent, and then buff it out as long and as hard as I can stand. I think it looks great either over shellac or all by itself on some woods, like mahogany and red oak.

The second recipe is going to sound really strange--but that's only because it is. This is my all time favorite finish for walnut.

I mix equal parts of orange shellac, boiled linseed oil, and paraffin oil (I told you so). After filling the walnut, I apply this melange with 0000 steel wool. The more coats the better it looks--to a point of course--but I would say ten coats is about minimum. It really looks wonderful on walnut, and other darkish-brown woods.

Alan (going on too long again)

Re: Homebrew finish

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I mix equal parts of orange shellac, boiled linseed oil, and paraffin oil (I told you so). After filling the walnut, I apply this melange with 0000 steel wool. The more coats the better it looks--to a point of course--but I would say ten coats is about minimum. It really looks wonderful on walnut, and other darkish-brown woods.

Now that's interesting, essentially you make a very thick padding shellac?

Pam

what i have found

Dennis

>Spar varnish,turps,blo equal parts is the basic mix........but i find blo darkens some woods too much so i cut way back on that. The other problem is wipe on finish build is pain, takes many coats to build over several days. Another problem is some woods like red oak will bleed with finish like this and takes hours of removing to get nice finish. Bottom line to all this is try it and then you will know, i have been using variations of this for years and sometimes its cool and then at times really hate it.

Not sure if there is really a good answer to what works with this, just have to try it and see.

Dennis

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Re: Homebrew finish

John

>Andy

This is the mix/finish I find myself using most often. 1/3 Pratt & Lambert #38 varnish, 1/3 tung oil & 1/3 gum terpentine. If you need to darken your project use boiled linseed oil in place of tung oil, & if you require a tougher finish and want a more yellowish color use spar varnish.

All this said, if I had my choice of any oil finish to use it would be Souterland Well low sheen tung oil...it's a great product but very expensive.

John

Re: Homebrew finish

Andy Sexson

>Thanks for the responses. I'll try some of them out.

Re: Homebrew finish

Rob in Kansas

>Alan,

Is your "Paraffin oil" just the melted version of the grocery store paraffin used to seal Jelly or is it something else?

Rob

Re: Homebrew finish

Alan Hamilton

>Pam and Rob,

I have no idea what that shellac, BLO. and paraffin oil concoction should properly be called. Padding shellac is as good as anything I suppose.

What I thought someone would question is that shellac is very water-like in some respects, including that it won't mix with oil. I treat this mix like a nice salad dressing; I mix it up in an old jelly jar (without the jelly) and shake it up before dipping the steel wool.

Paraffin oil is an actual oil of some kind. It's not very viscous and it is clearer, almost "white," than just about any oil I've seen. A store with a good supply of finishing supplies ought to have it. It's used as the vehicle for rubbing out a finish with pumice and rottenstone.

Alan

Re: Homebrew finish

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Yes, that was my first thought, then remembered that blo is typically used as a lubricant for padding shellac; so there must be some mixing going on there. Maybe this is a friction/shaking emulsion rather than mixture?

Pam

Re: Homebrew finish

Alan Hamilton

>Pam,

I think you are correct. When I lay down the jelly jar the stuff remains mixed for a few minutes, but then separates. While it remains mixed it does have that cloudy look just like a salad dressing.

One thing I should have said before is that this finish probably should not be tried on a large roll-top desk, a ten-foot long dining table with ten chairs, or a gymnasium floor. But for a jewelry box, a smoking cabinet or the like, it is pretty hard to mess up and it looks great.

Alan

Re: Homebrew finish

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>Pratt & Lambert #38 varnish

Souterland Well low sheen tung oil

I could not find any information on these products. Where do you get them?

Re: Homebrew finish

John

>Don

I purchase the varnish from our local paint store who is a retailer for Pratt & Lambert paints. The tung oil can be purchased directly from the factory or from Garrett Wade. The reason you had a hard time finding it, is that I misspelled the product name...sorry, the correct spelling is Sutherland Wells.

John