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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 [...]

A few sample boards can save you from future finishing headaches. Finish manufacturers targeting the furniture industry and large professional finish shops provide a lot of information about [...]

Bleeding, blushing, blotching, orange peel and fish eye. The basics of wood finishing are really quite simple: You use one of three tools – a rag, brush or spray gun...

Solutions to a baker’s dozen of common finishing difficulties. It’s easy enough to provide instructions for applying finishes. But in the real world, things go wrong; problems occur that you...

Here are some finishing tips I hope you find of value. They are arranged in roughly the order of the typical finishing steps. Sand Oil Finishes Wet It’s not at...

A better understanding of what causes grain raising will help you manage it. Our finishing expert Bob Flexner explains this phenomenon and how to deal with it.

Different finishes look different on different species. There are many reasons to choose one finish over another. Usually the most important is for protection and durability – how well a...

Nobody likes wrapping up the last bit of finishing on a project and suddenly catching a run or imperfection you missed earlier. You can either ignore it, or more likely...

You can achieve a great finish from commonly available products. We all love home centers for the good stuff they carry and for their low prices. But home centers cater...

The critical parts are the fluid nozzle and air cap. As I have said many times, spray guns are pretty simple tools. By comparison, they aren’t any more difficult to...

How to choose a spray gun. A spray gun is a tool that turns a stain, paint, finish or other liquid material into a fine mist—a process called “atomization.” It...

Solutions for common situations, from softening edges to stripping. Here are 10 tips and tricks you might use to both speed your finishing and get better results. I’ve arranged them...