Finishing
Finishing for First-Timers
If you’ve never put brush to bare wood (or you’d like a refresher), learn how to greatly improve your chances of success. By Bob Flexner It’s one thing to describe finishing steps to an experienced finisher. It’s quite another to teach someone who has never applied stain or finish to anything. Describing finishing so a Continue reading»
Oil Finishes: Their History and Use
Here’s how to cut through all the confusion about oil, tung oil and wiping varnish. By Bob Flexner Finishing is a mystery to most woodworkers, but it’s not because finishes are difficult to apply. All that’s involved in applying a finish is transferring a liquid to wood using one of three really easy-to-use tools: a Continue reading»
Questions (and Answers) About the Shaker Cupboard
Several readers have asked some questions about the Shaker Wall Cupboard I built for the February 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (mailing now to subscribers). Here are the answers. Question: While I think it’s a handsome piece, where do you anticipate someone using it in their home? Do you actually advocate hanging this thing Continue reading»
Galvanized Pipe Fuming – It's Not a Way to Finish
After four years of writing magazine articles and blog entries, there is something that irks me to no end. Safety police. (Eye protection. Ear protection. Push sticks. Yes we all know those should be used in the shop.) If we try to work taking every safety precaution out there, we would be dressed as if Continue reading»
Exhausting Overspray in the Home Shop
If you want to spray finishes indoors, you need an exhaust system. This affordable homemade set-up makes it possible and affordable.
I See a Red Door…
This morning I added a coat of pitch black milk paint to my sack-back chair. After you strain milk paint, it’s a lot more like adding a colored wash than it is like painting. (It’s funny how my wife doesn’t even bother asking me what I want her old pantyhose for anymore.) As Michael Dunbar Continue reading»
A Little Bit of Red
Early chairs , especially American ones , look best when they are painted. Like any good woodworker who is in love with his or her raw material, I’ve tried to make stick chairs without painting them. Some chairs, such as two Welsh stick chairs I built six years ago, look pretty good to my eye Continue reading»
