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You may be familiar with the problem Apple is having with their newly released Home Pods and the white rings they sometimes leave on wood surfaces. Apple explains that they...

I’ve written this many times and said it many more. The film thickness of a finish is much more important for preventing water getting through to the wood than the...

  A woodworker friend called wanting to know where he could buy some methylated spirits. He had just read in a book that it was the best solvent to use...

A woodworker friend asked me what type colorants, pigment or dye, were used in Minwax stains. He had called Minwax and was told that they use only pigment, but this...

One of the difficulties with learning to do French polishing is overcoming the exotic vocabulary that continues to be used by some: “charge the rubber,” “fad in,” “spirit off,” etc....

Stains differ in the amount of colorant they include. On this panel I applied one brand of walnut stain to the left side and another brand to the right side,...

A spray pattern, with all the controls on the spray gun wide open, is supposed to be an even, elongated oval shape. If the pattern is heavier on one end...

The left dye is Transtint metalized dye. The right dye is Lockwood analine dye. Both are water-soluble. I covered the top half of the panel and put it in a...

This is one I come across often. People tell me in one way or another, that they are going to sand off the finish or paint. So then I point...

On Nov. 22 I posted an explanation of how cooler temperatures slow the drying of all finishes. Well, the opposite is also true. Warmer temperatures, especially with the aid of...

I learned this lesson the hard way. Don’t transport unfinished wood in the open bed of a pick-up truck if there’s any chance of rain. A local cabinet shop had...

I got a question from a woodworker about French polishing. He wanted to know why he was having so much trouble French polishing with Wipe-on Poly. He had made his...