Get a Perfect Finish Every Time
There’s probably no phrase in finishing that irritates me more than this one: Get a perfect finish every time. It’s commonly used by editors and publishers to title articles, sub-title books, and [...]
Measure twice, paint once!
I’m sure you’ve heard the admonition to measure twice before you cut once. If you haven’t, take it from me that it’s very good advice. You’ll save a lot of wood and grief by doing this. But what [...]
Hide Glue – Part 2: How it’s Made
The largest, and I think only, hide-glue factory left in the United States is Milligan & Higgins, located in Johnstown, New York, west of Albany, off Interstate 90. You can buy hide glue [...]
Will Paste Wax Damage a Finish?
A reader thought he remembered my cautioning against applying paste wax over water-based finish or latex paint. His memory was that I had said that paste wax could damage these coatings. This is [...]
How to Predict that a Wood will Blotch
A common question is: “How can I know if the wood I’m using is going to blotch when I apply a stain or finish?” This question comes up most often when finishing cherry, which has become a very [...]
Aerosol Finishing Products
It took me a long time to realize the full value of finishing products in aerosol cans. Not only can you finish an entire object with these aerosols, especially if the object isn’t large, you can [...]
Smart Coatings: On Land and Sea
Picture a military vehicle such as the tank shown. To help disguise it, it is painted with colors that blend in with the surrounding landscape. Problem is, the vehicle might move to a different [...]
Hide Glue – Part 1: Overview and Introduction
You can’t really talk about repairing antique furniture without explaining hide glue because it was the glue used on almost all furniture made before the 1950s. So, with this post I’m introducing [...]
Caution When Buying a Spray Gun
I was teaching a hands-on finishing class, including spraying, a while back when a student brought me a spray gun he had bought a year before from another teacher who was selling a line of spray [...]
How Myths get Started
I’m bouncing off of Chris Schwarz’s August 25 blog post where he describes how myths can get started. I’ll leave you to read what he says, but basically Chris realized that a simple joke can lead [...]
Is it the Object or the Finish?
I got a call recently from a friend who runs a mid-size woodworking shop. He was making several dozen walnut tables for a restaurant and finishing them with pre-catalyzed lacquer. He sent off a [...]
Books on Repairing Furniture
As I mentioned in a previous post, I had good woodworking skills 40 years ago when I started doing furniture restoration, including furniture repair. But repairing furniture is different than [...]
