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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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| "What can you use to remove mildew stains from a pine wood door?"
Laundry bleach. Removing mildew stains actually requires two things – you must kill the mildew, which is a living plant, and remove the stains it leaves. As luck would have it, laundry bleach does both. Use a freshly opened bottle of chlorine bleach (such as Chlorox), since it weakens once it has been opened. Apply it full strength to the entire surface, and let it dry. Brush off any white salt residue after it is dry, or wipe it off with a damp rag. |  | |
| "I have 20 year old dark maple kitchen cabinets. I would like to remove
the old stain, or at least lighten them up. Is there a way to do that?"
If you strip the finish off with paint remover, some, though not all, of
the stain will come off during the stripping process. You can sometimes take
more off by scrubbing the raw wood with Scotchbrite and lacquer thinner. Let
the wood dry, sand it lightly, then wash it with laundry bleach, such as
Chlorox, applied full strength direct from the bottle. Use fresh bleach,
because once it is opened, it starts loosing its efficacy. This sequence
should get the wood substantially lighter, and ready for refinishing. | | |
| "On stripped furniture, it is good to apply a thin coat of dewaxed shellac
first? Should this be before or after stain application? Also should this be
sanded to the bare wood or light sanded before top coat is applied?"
It is always a good idea to make the first coat of finish dewaxed shellac
on stripped pieces, but there is no reason not to stain the raw wood first.
Once you cleanly strip the furniture and let it dry, it is a good idea to
sand the surface at least lightly to make sure there is no residue on it.
Sanding with 180 grit garnet paper should be adequate. Apply stain to the
clean, sanded surface. When it is dry, apply a coat of dewaxed shellac, but
make sure it is dewaxed. The shellac you buy in liquid form in cans contains
wax, and is not appropriate for this job. However, Zinsser makes a product
called Seal Coat, which contains wax-free shellac, that is ideal.
Once the SealCoat dries, continue with whatever finish you have chosen.
There is no need to sand the SealCoat unless the surface is rough. In that
case, sand very lightly with 320 or 400 grit paper. Otherwise, continue
without sanding between coats. | | |
| Preparing the wood for finishing means getting it all the same as well as getting it clean, smooth, and level. What do I mean by all the same?
Sandpaper leaves a scratch pattern in wood. Different types and grits of sandpaper leave different sizes and shapes of scratches. Scrapers and planes leave still another type of surface.
When you put stain on wood, especially stain that contains pigments, the stain "takes" to the wood darker, lighter, more or less even depending on the wood surface. To get a uniform surface, always prepare all areas of the piece the same. If you scrape, scrape all areas. If you sand, sand all areas with the same type and grit sandpaper. That way, your stain will go on more evenly with more uniform color.
Try this experiment. Sand one half of a maple, pine, or cherry board with 120 grit paper and the other half all the way up to 220. Now take your favorite wiping stain and stain and wipe both sections. Look at the color. Do the same test with scraping one half and sanding the other. See what I mean? |
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