Woodworker's Journal 2006-30-5, страница 65

FINISHING THOU

FINISHING HOTLINE

When attempting to match a stain color on different wood species, there are some great products that can help you out.

Fortunately, there are two common materials you can use to add extra color after staining: glaze and toner. Glaze is slower-drying stain modified with extra resin and is designed to go in between coats of finish. Toner is simply tinted finish. You can buy either in ready-to-use form, but in this case, you might want to mix your own.

Convert your oil-based stain to glaze by adding about an ounce of boiled linseed oil to a pint of stain. Apply it after your first coat of clear finish. Manipulate the glaze with a dry brush to apply a very thin, even coat of color, and let it dry at least overnight before applying the polyurethane. If you prefer toner, make it by adding up to two ounces of stain to a pint of oil-based polyurethane or varnish. Toner must be applied very evenly or it will show colored lap marks. Whichever route you choose, try it first on scraps of stained, sealed ash, since both techniques require some skill.

There are also two things you could have done to make the ash stain darker. One is to stop sanding at a coarser grit than you used for the pine and poplar. For example, stop sanding the ash at 150-grit, but continue to 220 for the other woods. Second, raise the grain of the ash, and only the ash, prior to staining. Raising the grain leaves the pores of the wood more open, and hence prone to absorb more stain. Clearly, this advice violates the first rule of finishing preparation: Always do the same thing to all parts of a piece. However, there are exceptions to every rule. £

65 October 2006 Woodivorker's Journal

S'fP^ N

omeone wrote me this morning about his grandfather, who is a blind woodworker, and it instantly took me back three decades. - ... •

At that time, I was doing "in house" fouchup A French polish

work, surely the most ignominious of all mouse.

finishing jobs. I'd go into a home and spend the better part of a day touching up all the furniture in the house, often under the watchful eye of the owner. For most customers, appearance was everything, so I'd carefully fill dings, match colors, clean surfaces, then restore the sheen and silky feel of the finish with French polish.

One day, a gent who lived alone hired me to touch up and French-polish all the furniture in his house, a fairly typical request, but when I arrived, I realized this was anything but. It was immediately apparent that he was blind.

Standing there, dumbstruck, I was wondering how this man could possibly know whether I did a good job, the usual hurdle before getting paid, when he interrupted my thoughts. "I know what you are thinking," he offered, and as he continued, it was apparent that he did. "I may not be able to tell if the colors are right," he chuckled, "but I can assure you 1 can judge your finishing skills by feeling the surfaces once you are done."

Of course, my own personal ethics demanded that all touchup colors be spot on, even though the match might never be seen, and I took extra care with the French polishing as well. When I was done, the old man carefully caressed every surface of every piece, then complimented me effusively on my work.

Somehow, I knew that he'd have "spotted" anything that was not flawless, and his compliments meant more to me than countless kudos from a legion of sighted customers.

"I may not be able to tell if the colors are right," he chuckled, "but I can assure you I can judge your finishing skills by feeling the surfaces once you are done."

A Case of Blind Faith

By Michael Dresdner