Fellow woodworkers,
I’m a hobbyist woodworker with intermediate skills. (Finishing skills are a weak spot for me.) I’m making a single-slab, crotch black walnut round tabletop and am ready to finish it. This will be a breakfast table so will get regular use. I’m looking for a process (sanding and applying finish) to obtain a nice finish with lots of depth. I’m not proficient with a spray gun, so wipe on products would be preferred.
Can anyone direct me to resources that will provide good info for me? Or simply what product they would use in my application.
Thanks as always,
John
Replies
I can give a mostly good recommendation for Waterlox Original, a wiping varnish with tung oil as well as other resins. I have successfully used it on a crotch mahogany coffee table, and refinished both my walnut dining table and oak kitchen table last winter. It doesn't have the abrasion resistance of polyurethane, but is much prettier, esp. for beautiful wood. I'll put in a picture of the crotch mahogany table.
Sanding: I use a cabinet scraper and card scraper to get the wood ready for sanding and start with 220 grit. This is much better/more efficient than starting with coarser sandpaper, as the coarser paper puts scratches in the figured wood that are really hard to get out. (By the way, use compressed air or if not available, use a vacuum to remove all the sanding dust and grit that has come off the sandpaper and lodged in the wood, or you will just re-scratch the wood with the pieces of coarser grit.) With a crotch piece, it may be better to use a random orbit sander rather than hand sanding, as there is no one grain direction. If there are straight grain sections of the top, you can hand sand them if necessary after the ROS. I often use sandpaper wrapped around a hard block of wood to first sand the top, to make sure I've reduced or eliminated any ripples.
I would sand with 320 after the 220, and possibly 400 or higher after that.
I apply 2 or 3 coats of the Waterlox with a foam "brush", letting it dry at least a day between coats. I don't sand between these first coats, as sanding thru the finish will be a disaster. The finish will look different in different areas of the top, due to the figure. You want to apply enough coats before sanding that the top has a relatively even sheen. If areas look dry or porous still, you are not ready for sanding, as most of the finish has soaked into the wood and there is not enough on the surface for sanding. After you have put on enough coats to be ready to sand, wait at least an extra day if not two before sanding, for the finish to harden more. (Dry is not hard for varnishes like this; dry is loss of the solvents; hard is achieved over time by chemical combination of the varnish and oxygen.) Use a sanding pad and 320 grit paper to level the surface and remove any bumps/dust nibs. Clean with mineral spirits and let dry. Apply a couple more coats. If it looks good, you are ready for the final steps. Sand with wet or dry 400 grit paper moistened with mineral spirits. Then rub with 0000 steel wool lubricated with mineral spirits. Now your finish is smooth but a bit hazy. Make a "mouse" from piece of cotton cloth (an old men's handkerchief is best) wrapped around a ball of cotton and closed with a rubber band. Make sure that the round end is smooth without wrinkles. Use this to apply a very thin coat of Waterlox, so thin that it dries almost immediately (so dust can't get in it and stick.) If there are still slight hazy areas after it dries, do one final coat.
It takes a while for the finish to harden; it will dent or scratch fairly easily if heavy objects are left on it for very long, especially when the finish is still somewhat new.
Wow, thanks, jharveyb, for the comprehensive response. thanks also to the others for the additional info below. I've ordered some Waterlox and am anxious to get started.
jharveyb gives very good advice. As he said, Waterlox is not quite as scratch resistant as poly. While Waterlox, as he describes, will give a beautiful finish, if you wish you can add a coat or two of poly over it to get more durability. Use a thin wipe-on version and apply somewhat similarly.
All of the above is a good recommendation. Exactly how I finish Walnut with great results. The Waterlox will allow the grain patterns to show well which is really nice with Walnut. You can add some brushing Varnish to the Waterlox to get some more protection. Keep it thin and use as a wiping varnish. A little goes a long way.
Don't sand the first couple of coats is huge. Too many finishes say you should sand in between coats. But not the first 2 or even 3, depending on how thin you apply it. Sanding through the first coat gets you back to bare wood in spots, especially edges, and you'll get a crappy end product.
Especially important with crotch and other figured woods. Part of the figure is like end grain and the first couple coats disappear into the wood, leaving it way too thin to sand. I learned this lesson from a tech guy at Waterlox.
Aside from a lot of the very useful info and recs above - and especially since finishing is a "weak spot"...DO TEST SAMPLES FIRST. If you have just spent a good deal of time building this piece - do not treat it as a "finishing lab". That is one of the most important lessons I ever learned and it has saved a lot of "heartache"... read time and money.
This guy pretty much does nothing else.
His go-to is generally Rubio Monocoat.
https://www.youtube.com/@BlacktailStudio
Personal preference on walnut is either Osmo (just another version of Rubio) or oil based polyurethane. I've never used waterlox but @jharveyb's work is way better than mine!
Osmo provides only a modicum of protection but has the advantages of super-easy application and repairs are a snip.
I recently tried Osmo. Again. I'd tried it twice before, and said never again. Lots of folks swear by it, so I decided to give it another shot. I find it worse than horrible. Before I ever try it again, I promised I'd hit myself in the nuts with a hammer.
I rather like it. It's a pretty foolproof finish and brings out the colour well. Which did you try out of interest?
The polyx oil. 3054, I think.
Walnut lightens with age. It is one of the few woods that I add a bit of color to. Just sayin'.
Correct, Geedubbee. I learned that lesson from an old woodworker years ago, who made his antique walnut reproductions look old by using an amber stain on them to lighten the color. I recently made a base for an antique walnut grandfather clock, and used amber TransTint dye before applying a Waterlox finish. There is no way to discern that the base is a different age from the clock.
I love the color variation in un-steamed walnut, so I wouldn't apply any color to it. But that's just me...
I like amber shellac as a first coat and sealer, Walnut has a gray/brown color, the amber shellac brings out a glow that can be lost.
commercial walnut is "steamed" before kiln-drying, a process whose goal is to make the sapwood look the same color as the heartwood. Unfortunately, it also kills the color of the walnut to make it the gray/brown color you use the amber dye/stain to correct. Air dried or kiln-dried walnut has beautiful color variation including some purples. Only way I know to get it as kiln dried lumber is to air dry it yourself, and take it to a small kiln (which avoids the steaming process.)
I'm in central Tx and there are several small sawmills around that have kilns. They buy walnut and other logs, slab them and then put them in a kiln. The walnut slabs have the nice color variations that you mentioned. While their main product is slabs they also have dimensional lumber on occasion. Not sure what's available in your area, but it's worth looking around.
Everything (other than a clear-coat epoxy) scratches, so I go for something that's repairable. Southerland-Wells Polymerized Tung Oil. Sand to 220, wipe on (saturate), wipe off. Next day (maybe 2, when it's not tacky), wipe on, sand with 400 wet/dry, wipe off. Next day, wipe on, sand with 800 wet/dry, wipe off. Stop when it's perfect. I buy their High-Gloss Botanical, and thin with Milk Paint Citrus Solvent (50-50 for first 2, 2:1 rest) to achieve a satin finish.
When it needs touching up, just re-do steps 2-n. The only problem is the time it takes, and the piece needs to air out for about 2 weeks, or your house smells like orange.
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