I have a cherry table that has a couple places where there are black lines in the wood. I have noticed that the finish has cracked along these black lines. (This table was refinished once and the cracks reappeared.) I do not not see any visible cracking in the wood itself.
I want to refinish it again but I want to do something to stop cracks from coming through the finish. What should I do?
Replies
If you are going to refinish; Once you have the finish stripped, clean the offensive area well with a strong solvent like lacquer thinner and dry behind it. It sounds like you have some type of contamination problem.
If you plan on staining it, do so and then seal it with Sealcoat which is blonde shellac. It will help lock down any leftover contaminants and provide a good base for finishing.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been on the road.
Peter
Thanks for your reply. The crack in the finish is 18" long, appears in a board with a swirly grain, and it follows a grain line for 18 inches. Does that sound like contamination? (I would have expected contamination to be more spread out and not to follow the grain.) One other observation: the finish looked perfect when it was new. This flaw developed after the finish was applied over a period of a couple months, not during application. I thought it might be a result of a slight crack in the wood that opens up when humidity is low. Is that a possibility? I tend to find that capturing finishes in photos is very difficult, but I have tried to attach some pictures of the finish defect to this message.
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