Popular Woodworking 2001-08 № 123, страница 61

Flexner on Finishing

Rubbing for a 'Perfect' Finish

Don't be satisfied with a slightly lumpy finish. Here's how to finish the job right.

Go to any exhibition of handmade furniture and you'll see the problem right away. The woodworking is usually impressive, but the finish on many of the pieces is horrible. It looks and feels rough because there's dust and other debris in it, and there are runs and sags and either brush marks or orange peel, depending on the method the maker used to apply the finish.

How is it that some woodworkers come up with finishes that look and feel great and others just can't figure it out? Is the difficulty of applying a nice finish the reason so many woodworkers opt for oil finishes with the resulting sacrifice in protection and durability?

If you listen to advertisers and read the promotions for books and magazines ("Get a perfect finish every time"), you might think it's the product or the application tool that makes the difference, but it isn't. No product or application tool can produce a perfect finish, or even a near-perfect finish. Only one thing can - rubbing the finish, meaning rubbing with an abrasive.

There are two broad methods of rubbing a finish: the easy way and the hard way. The easy way is to rub with steel wool and maybe a lubricant. This produces noticeably better results than not rubbing at all, but not nearly as good as the hard way, which is to level the finish first with sandpaper, then rub it with abrasives and a lubricant. The hard way isn't hard to do; it just takes more time, and there's a greater risk of cutting or sanding through the finish and exposing raw wood.

In most cases, there's no advantage to rubbing surfaces that aren't seen in a reflected light and aren't touched. To make these surface (table legs, for example) the same sheen as the surfaces you're rubbing, apply a finish that produces that sheen naturally - gloss, semi-gloss, satin or flat.

Abrading the Finish

Abrading is easy and quick. Simply take

You also can merely abrade the finish,which is not as effective as sanding. Steel wool (or gray Scotch-Brite pads) and a lubricant such as Murphy Oil Soap dissolved in water is all you need.

some #000 or #0000 steel wool (I prefer #0000) and rub the finish with the grain until you achieve an even sheen over the entire surface.

Pay special attention to the edges, because the finish there is very easy to cut through. To help control your strokes so you stop right at each edge, take many short strokes right up to it, then connect these short strokes (on both edges) with long strokes.

On small surfaces, you can stand at the end of the piece and rub away from you

and then back towards you, but on larger surfaces, you should stand at the side and rub side to side. When you do this, be conscious to not rub in an arc, which is the natural way your hand and arm want to move. Instead, think in terms of making a reverse arc, like a shallow concave, so the actual stroke is straight.

You can use a lubricant with the steel wool to soften the scratches you're putting in the finish, but you risk making rub-throughs worse, because if you do cut through (most likely on the edges), you won't see it when it first happens and stop. I suggest you not use a lubricant until you've practiced a few times.

Any liquid or paste will work well for

74 Popular Woodworking August 2001