Restore a Round Oak Table
Thoughtful finishing and new leaves prepare this classic for the next 100 years. This old table looks like a prime candidate for refinishing. Scrub off the old finish, sand out all the dings and [...]
Wipe-On/Rub-Off Finishing
This two-step process guarantees flawless results. No brush marks, drips, runs, bubbles, hairs, dust or orange peel—and beautiful results every time. For most furniture projects, it doesn’t get [...]
Guide to Finishing 11 Common Woods
Improve your results by understanding wood characteristics. Each species of wood has unique finishing characteristics, both positive and negative. To help you determine how to choose the right [...]
Finish an Exterior Door
How to choose and apply a long-lasting clear finish. What do fancy wooden boats and beautiful wooden front doors have in common? They both need a clear finish that can really stand up to the [...]
Repair Water Damaged Wood
Work miracles on wood with oxalic acid. Watering a potted plant can be disastrous if the plant lives on top of something made out of wood. We’ve all seen the white spots and black rings that can [...]
Silky-Smooth Rub-Out Finish with Varnish
Three quick steps to a silky-smooth finish. Brushed-on finishes such as varnish provide superior protection, but they dry so slowly, airborne dust and renegade hairs are almost sure to settle on [...]
The Bow Box
Take your box-making and scroll saw skills to a new level. “Trompe l’oeil” is an old French phrase that literally means “it fools the eye.” Trompe l’oeil has a long tradition in the art [...]
Green Wall Shelf
Add a touch of color to your hallway. Our front hall is usually a disorganized mess: coats on the floor, keys strewn here and there, and hats—well, I can never find them. I built this wall shelf [...]
Cherry Finish for Birch Plywood
Achieve rich, warm color without blotching in 4 easy steps. If you’ve ever stained birch plywood a dark color, the results were probably so blotchy and difficult to reverse that you vowed, “Never [...]
Pre-finishing Plywood
Using factory-made prefinished plywood makes cabinet building quicker, easier and cleaner, so it’s unfortunate that most home centers and lumberyards don’t stock it. Luckily, [...]
How to Control Blotching
Discovering ugly blotching after applying stain is one of the worst finishing problems a woodworker can encounter—especially because the unsightly patches of dark, deeply absorbed color seem to [...]
Finishing Cabinet
This 3-cabinet unit is designed to organize and store finishing supplies ranging from flammable liquids to Q-tips in ways that makes them easy to access and (just as important!) easy to put back. [...]
