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| Leave it to the pro. Michael Dresdner, a nationally known wood finishing and woodworking expert, has answered hundreds of common wood finishing questions in Varathane’s Q&A library to help you successfully complete your project. Click on a link to the left for help and solid advice. |
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| "We want to refinish our kitchen cabinets. They are old pine with a VERY dark stain. Do you have any recommendations for stripping products or technique? I tried a citrus gel stripping agent with little success. Now I’m wondering if I’d be better off painting them and glazing for an aged effect. I want a finish that will be resistant to grease and easy to clean. Also, how can I create realistic wormholes? Placement? How many are too many? What tools required?"
There is no question that painting is far easier than stripping and refinishing in clear finish, so if that is an equal option, take it. All you need do is clean the cabinets well with TSP in water to remove any surface grease, sand them lightly, prime, and paint. You can check out www.paintideas.com for a load of slick ideas.
If you decide stripping is a must, choose a stripper that is high in methylene chloride. You must work with gloves, goggles, respirator, and good ventilation, but you’ll find these strippers are much faster and more aggressive. Make sure you keep the wood wet with stripper until the entire finish is off down to raw wood.
For a durable clear coat, use an oil based polyurethane. Make wormholes with a very fine drill bit, both straight and at an angle. The best way to understand how to make them realistic is to look at some wood that has real wormholes. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. |  | |
| "I would like to remove the old stain from my 21-year-old pine bedroom set, but am unable to find much info on this process. I would like to re-stain the wood a much lighter color. Is this possible?"
Absolutely. At the risk of sounding self-serving, I’ll suggest that a good source of information is one of my books; "The New Wood Finishing Book." Chapter three covers stripping off old finishes, including a special section on removing old stain. Sadly, there is more to it than I can give you here or I’d consider copying out the whole chapter. In any case, the pictures are worth seeing, too.
Many libraries have this book, as well as most woodworking guilds, who usually lend books to members. If worse comes to worst, you could buy it, either from one of the online sellers (amazon.com, bn.com, borders.com) or from my own website at www.michaeldresdner.com. Amazon sells it cheaper than I do, but if you get it from me, I’ll sign it for you. | | |
| "Why do you recommend garnet paper for the later stages of sanding rather than aluminum oxide? For a mahogany dinning room table, at what grit should I stop?"
I recommend garnet paper only for the one final hand sanding, not for all later stages, and the reason is simple.
The aluminum oxide grits used for better sandpaper are made to be highly friable. That means they will fracture while sanding wood, constantly presenting a new, sharp point to the wood. As a result, they sand very efficiently for a long time. They are what I suggest for almost all sanding, including that which you do with an ROS or finish sander, right up to, but not including, the last step.
Garnet, in contrast, is not so easily friable, and as you use it, the grit on the paper rounds over and gets duller. Worn or slightly dulled garnet paper leaves a softer "U-shaped" scratch, as opposed to the harsher "V-shaped" scratches that aluminum oxide leaves. The result is that after garnet paper, stains don’t grab as aggressively, making it easier to impart a more uniform color to the wood. Sanding end grain with worn garnet paper also helps burnish the edge, slightly limiting how aggressively stain absorbs into the end grain.
For mahogany, and in fact for most woods, I would suggest that you sand to 180 grit aluminum oxide, either by hand or with a machine sander. Follow that with 180 garnet (yes, the same grit size, though a different mineral), but this final sanding should be by hand only (no machines) and going with the grain. Try it and see if you don’t notice a difference in the way the stain behaves. | | |
| "My mother-in-law gave us a dining table that she at one point painted white. It had a beautiful finish, and I would like to restore that. Do I use paint remover and then try to sand it down? I’m afraid that I’ll ruin it. What should I do?"
First, relax. You won’t ruin the table, because you already started out right – by asking what to do. Now it’s my turn to help.
Sanding off a finish is indeed a good way to damage wood, but removing finish with paint remover will harm only the finish, not the wood itself. Use a good chemical stripper and it will take off the paint, leaving the wood clean and intact. It will also take off the original finish, but you can replace that.
If you have not done any refinishing before, it would be a good idea to start with a good book or article on the subject, since there is more to it than I can offer you in this short venue. In any case, remember to suit up with protective gear (goggles, gloves, respirator, apron), work in a well ventilated area, and be patient. The problem most folks have with stripping furniture is that they don’t allow the stripper enough time to do its job. Keep the piece wet with stripper until all the finish comes off easily, then clean the wood thoroughly before it dries.
Once you get down to raw wood, you can sand lightly, but in many cases, no sanding is necessary. From there, you will most likely need to stain the table to restore its original finish color, or choose a different stain color if you like. Follow that with two or three coats of polyurethane or varnish, and you will have your lovely table back the way you remember it. |
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