The Sanding is Done!!!

One of my least favorite jobs of refinishing woodwork is the sanding process that is necessary. I spent approximately another hour of sanding this morning on the bull-nosed edge of the table. A flat edge would have been much easier to sand. A more ornate edge would have taken more time. All in all, I probably spent 3 or 4 hours on the edge. I am glad that it is finished now!!!

I would recommend that furniture refinishers invest in a small wet/dry vacuum to suck up all of the dust that is left behind after the sanding. Ours works just great for this! After the vacuuming process, I stopped to feed the girls some lunch.

Once lunch was over, it was time to stain. Some people may use some form of a brush for this. I was taught to use an old rag that could be discarded. Whatever works best for you is all that matters. So far, I have applied 2 coats of it. I am allowing this last one to dry completely before I decide to add more stain or not. The thing you need to know is that the stain color that appears on the front label of the can of stain is not necessarily the color that you will end up with. You're probably wanting to know why.

First of all, not all types of wood absorb the same amount of stain. Therefore, the finished product may be lighter than what you had expected and desired. If that is the case, continue to add more layers of the stain until you have the color that you had anticipated in the beginning. But be careful with that. If you add just that "one more coat of stain", you may end up with a darker product than what you wanted.

Secondly, if your unfinished wood is already darker than the stain that you purchased, you're not going to get the product to turn into the lighter color.

Another piece of advice for you, make sure that if you have any kinds of drops or spills on your project that you wipe them into the wood QUICKLY. If you do not, those drops and spills will probably remain darker that the rest of the wood--forever. It is vital that every time you add another coating of stain that you apply it everywhere. If not, your color will not be even. For instance, our table is very long and very wide. It is impossible to do the entire width of the wood from one location except for the very ends. So, you need to stain half of the width in some locations. You then walk to the other side and stain just up to the portion that you already stained. If you overlap the stain, the part overlapped will be considerably darker than the other parts. Most of us do not consider that to be attractive. LOL! Bottom line. The more layers of stain you apply, the darker your wood will become. Once you have reached the darkness that you want on your product, allow it to completely dry before you move on to the finishing layers.

Varnish and lacquer are the only finishes that I am aware of that can be used to finish wood. Both are great. Until last week when I did our dining room chairs, I had only used varnish and have always been pleased with it. The main difference between the two is the reason I went with the lacquer. Both finishes require a few layers to get the best coverage. Whenever you use varnish, you are required to use fine sandpaper to do a little roughing up of the previous layer before you apply the next layer. With lacquer, NO sanding is required between layers. I could be wrong but it seemed to me that the lacquer dried quicker than the varnish which can take several hours to completely cure. And, again, either finish offers satin, semi-gloss and high gloss. You choose what you like the best. My experience has proven to me that the higher the gloss, the better you can clean it. It works just like paint in that respect. Only use flat paint if you never expect to need to wash it. As soon as you go to wash the flat, you'll find that your paint comes off onto your rag. Semi and high glossed painted surfaces wash very well and the paint remains where it needs to be.

So, I just checked the table. It looks like I need to apply another 1 to 2 coats of stain. I'll keep you updated on everything.

VLE-B