Interior Wood - Master Wood Finishing Techniques
Sample pints are recommended for testing before application to entire surface.
Suggested Approach to Oil Finishing
- Sand and Clean
- Bio Poly NT or Mountain, rubbed x 2-3 coats
Sanding: Sand to desired level of smoothness. New construction is typically 80-120. Custom finishing on a new house is often 80-120-220. Fine woodworking can be 50-80-120-220-320-600-1000 in that sequence, sometimes higher grits are employed.
FINE SANDING: When doing fine sanding apply the finish before closing the pores of the wood with sanding. This means that for most woods the finish should be applied between 50 and 120 grit sanding. Its fine to do further sanding and application of oils after the initial coat is applied. This can actually be a nice touch. But avoid sanding past 120 grit and THEN applying the initial coat of oil finish.
Fine Sanding Table Top Finish Schedule using Natural Oil Finish:
- Sand 50 grit
- Mountain, rubbed x 1 coat.
- Sand 80 grit
- Mountain, rubbed x 1 coat
- Sand 120, 220, 320
- Mountain, rubbed x 2 coats
- Sand 320, 600, 1000
- Polish with Mountain or Looking Glass Beeswax Polish.
This example above provides a deeply penetrating oil finish for a table that can be easily maintained. Tables have been done this way that have withstood extreme household / family activities.
100% Natural- Beeswax and Pure Linseed Rubbing Oil Finish:
- Sand
- Looking Glass Beeswax Polish x 2 or three coats.
More SpecificConsiderations for Professionals:
CONTRACTOR, WOOD FINISHER, QUESTIONS ABOUT A COUPLE DIFFERENT PROJECTS>
Best way to Refinish and Oak Table? Best Cherry Wood Floor Finish.
Hi ____ ,
Apologies for the delay on this project. Yes. We still have some extra BioPoly Butter Toffee we keep around for Grey Eagles floor.
BioPoly is great on both Oak Table and Cherry floor if they want a sturdy rubbing oil.
If they want a clear film finish, but not smelly poly, then 3-4 coats of Easy Safe 1k is the best I know. Replaces 2k finishes nicely w good sheen for tables and imparts a nice color tone to cherry. Warm not pale like acrylic or waterbased poly.
Id ask if they want it to age w the tree resins being accentuated over time or if they want a clear film finish that keeps the lighter tones of raw wood (as much as possible).
Essentially, I'd base finish schedule on customer preference: oils v water based. You're probably more aware of these differences than the customer yet it will be the primary factor in a year or two of how happy they are with the performance, wear and look upon aging.
For me, the oak table would get a polished surface of Mountain and Looking Glass. Me and my son redid our maple dining table when he was 4 or 5. I wasn't sure a rubbing.oil was tough enough for a large active family but man we lived on that table and love it still. Before xmas we Earth Clean and polish w Looking Glass to spruce up for guest's. It's so much nicer than poly and just looks and feels warm to everyone. I think just one section of heavy sharpy marker was the only thing that didn't wash out totally from the kids.
Cherry floor, also, is an absolute Mountain wood for me, (my heart pumps wood finish so take my tastes w. grain of salt). But if there's a whole floor of Cherry Im going to impulsively start to Tbar 4 thin coats of Mountain on it.
For trim that is cherry or other woods, like polished cabinets, we use BioPoly and Looking Glass. There are pics on www.earthpaint.net of a mountaintop house near Black Mountain. We don't give names but you probably knew their business. All their trim and kitchen was milled cherry, installed by a master craftsman, incredible artistry. I.finished the job myself. The bee pic sitting on our beeswax online is also from this job. It's a special thing. Cherry, tree resins, beeswax, mineral infusion of the wood fiber cell w tree solvent aiding saturation. Really hard for me to imagine Earth manifesting better ingredients for wood and cherry trim... except Mountain! (a story for another day)
__X___, I can talk wood finish all day and night. Absolutely love it. But my time is very limited. I hope the above gives a decent outline of the guiding principles for Earthpaint wood finishes that seem appropriate on this project and others. So that you'll feel equipped to select and make samples for customer as needed.
The technologies we specialize in are not available to general public, except online, and some, like the cashew, or Nanotech, are extremely rare and difficult to make. 3D is a modern version of an old violin process that I like for resonance.of wood instruments. I have to make this myself by hand. It takes me nearly a week to cook a small batch and I haven't had time to make that lately. The BioPoly has a similar pine resin I adapted to be made with our bigger vats. If needing wood grain illumination and resonance I use that instead of 3D.
The cashew resin feedstock (discarded shells) actually may get blocked by recent political economic actions that are limiting food raw materials nationally. Suppliers say containers and petrobased feedstocks are also affected. We saw a similar move before the 2008 Oil $ spiked. Not sure what that's about but If you're leaning towards cashew resin Id get enough to complete job bc we've been warned by global suppliers of the above.
If you have some BioPoly left, perhaps a sample board of that would do the job.
FINE WOOD FINISHING PRINCIPLES:
Chatoyance relies on successive Lean to fat coats, Warm Wood and Oils, Graded Sandpaper from course to fine, Apply first to wider open pores for max grain illumination depth, Fresh air and sun aid dry, Sand pores closed behind finish, Wet dry sandpaper helps for finer grits
Polish w Looking Glass and the finest grit you're willing to use. I use heavy brown kraft paper as my final polish. Some ppl use 1200-4000 orbitals. [Most diy sand 120 grit apply one or two coats and feel its done]
GRADED SANDING and FINE WOOD FINISHING TECHNIQUE FOR MAXIMUM FINISH PENETRATION, DEPTH, CHATOYANCE:
PLANER, IF POSSIBLE WARM THE WOOD 75F TO 120F (consider glues and wood type if warming), 35,50,60, APPLY FINISH WARM (room temp or 80-150F) APPLY WET ON WET COATS FOR THE FIRST COAT TO GET DEEP DEEP PENETRATION, DRY OVERNIGHT, 60,80, APPLY WARM FINISH ONCE A DAY, DRY OVERNIGHT, SAND 80,100,120, APPLY WARM, 120,220,320, APPLY WARM, 320, 400, 600, LOOKING GLASS BEESWAX POLISH X 1 OR 2 COATS MAX. Dry in sun if possible.
SHOP-EARTHPAINT.NET has sample pints.
I hope things are good in Colorado and that this reference will be helpful if I cant get to email. Whatever i missed will be on the product webpage, tds sheets and back label.
Best wishes
Tom
