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I’m going to be building a curly cherry dining table this year and I’m trying to think through the various steps. I’d like to really be able to bring out the curl in the cherry and need some advice. My wife also wants it to be as water & spill safe as practical. I should point out that I’m an amateur and do not have access to a spray system. Most of the finishes I’ve done are Watco topped with wax or the occasional poly-stain finish. Most come out reasonably well, but never as good as the stuff I see in FW.
Any help will be appreciated and keep me out of the dog house.
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Jeff,
Watco will bring out the curl nicely, but oil and wax are not a good finish for a dining table (or any table, in my opinion). If it was my table I'd use a good coat of Watco to bring out the curl and then a few coats of a varnish (poly or whatever), and then rub it out to the desired gloss. In my experience even "wipe-on" varnishes need to be rubbed out to look good.
Phil
*Phil,Thanks for your reply. This is the point where I embarrass myself with my own ignorance. You suggest top coating the Watco with Varnish (poly or whatever) and rubbing it out.a. do you mean to use ployurethane as "varnish" over the Watco? I usually think of varnish as a separate type of product than poly-but this due more to my lack of knowledge than anyhting else.b. what is involved in "rubbing out"?Like I said, I am an amateur!thanksJeff
*Try Waterlox, which is a tried and true tung oil wiping varnish (essentially a thinned varnish). Also search FW for an article roughly titled "Popping the Curl" (in curly Maple?) I can't remember, but the same techniques will apply to Cherry.
*Jeff, Don't be embarassed. There are few products more confusing and misleading than retail wood finishes. "Danish Oil" and "tung oil finishes" are generally oil/varnish blends. Most "polyurethane" finishes contain only enough urethane resin to justify the name. A true, high-urethane-content poly will say something like "If a second coat is needed it must be applied within two hours of the first coat". I suggest getting or looking at Bob Flexner's finishing book. It explains it a lot better than I can. Anyway, what I've been doing is applying a liberal coat of Watco Danish Oil to the cherry, because I like the color and depth it imparts. Then I apply 2 or 3 coats of Minwax Wipe-on Poly (gloss) and then 1 or 2 coats of Minwax W-o-P (satin). I sand very lightly with 220 after the last gloss coat and between satin coats. By the way, I use gloss for the first coats because satin contains little particles that dull the finish, but can also obscure grain slightly if you use multiple coats. After the last coat of satin I rub out the finish using mineral oil and fine pumice. You put just a drop of oil and just a light sprinkle of pumice on the wood, or on a rag, and rub with a lot of pressure with the grain. Assuming the surface was adequately prepared (sanded, scraped, or planed very smooth with no tear-out or divots) you end up with a nice uniform semi-gloss finish that really accentuate the grain and curl. If you want a high gloss, you can skip the satin and rub out with fine pumice followed by "rotten stone" followed by a polishing compound, but you'll have to completely fill every last pore in the wood, either with some kind of grain-filler or with finish. Either way can be time-consuming and frustrating. I've yet to find a grain filler that I like, and filling the pores with finish can take forever. You have to sand it all down between coats, more than just the light sanding I do to knock off the dust nibs.If I recall right, the FW article mentioned involves using a dye stain to bring out the curl in maple. I'd avoid that for now if I were you, being a beginner. Plus I don't think you'll need it for cherry. Good luck!
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