Replies

1. 
   user-83153 | May 15, 2007 01:42am | #1

   Cherry3,

      Wow, you go from one extreme to the next. Linseed oil offers essentially no protection at all, while poly sacrifices finish qualities to get ultimate abrasion protection. If you want speed, neither one is much good.

      I would recommend using blonde shellac or waterborne acrylic if you want the color to remain stable. But I really wouldn't recommend anything without more info.

                       Rob

2. 
   frenchy | May 15, 2007 02:10am | #2

   Cherry3

     Please look at Shellac. Much harder finish than poly's,, faster to apply than wipe on's and insanely easy to fix if something should happen..

      Shellac is safe,, it's the only finish you've been eating since you were a kid.. (shellac coatings are on most pills and a lot of candy) 

     I have one method of doing it,, others here have other methods but the end result can be either wonderfully deep beautiful finish as seen on  the finest antiques or just a nice qick finish that affords protection..

    PS it's not expensive either!

    OH and it's renewable and biodegradable.  It's not new,, about 5000 years or so.  But if you haven't considered it would you please mention why? PS I'd love to explain my approach if your interested..

1. 
   Cherry3 | May 16, 2007 04:45pm | #6

   Frenchy,Thank you. I'd love to hear your approach.

1. 
   frenchy | May 16, 2007 07:05pm | #7

   Cherry3 

       My approach over thins the shellac.  Instead of mixing one gallons of denatured alcohol to one gallon of Zinssers bulls eye I mix two gallons.. That produces a really thin waterery mix.. the advantage of it is two fold..

    First when you get runs (and trust me you will)  it's extremely easy to chase them and paint  them before they harden and leave the tell tail run marks. 

    Second occasionally you'll get a batch of shellac that is old, what I believe happens is the light ends of the alcohol chain evaporate and when they do the shellac doesn't dry properly.. when you over thin you eliminate that possibility..  To confirm that theory I stripped shellac from a 70 year old piano (stripping shellac is extremely easy, you just flood it with denatured alcohol, that softens the shellac and you just wipe it off).

     I then let the rags I used to strip it dry and the following day rinsed them out in some fresh denatured alcohol. I used the resulting mix to brush on a coat of shellac and it dried perfectly.. 70 year old shellac.. fresh denatured alcohol and normal drying.. I suspect that I proved my thesis.

    I digress,

      You can spray, wipe, or brush shellac on..  I've found that brushing is faster than the other two methods.. while I might be able to cover more area faster by spraying the clean up time and dealing with over spray  makes brushing faster. 

      I use a big old house painter brush to do just about everything.. The trick to shellac is fast.. I mean Fast! shellac dries insanely fast so you should never go back over it.   One wipe and move on.. Flood it on.. you'll get runs but if you shellac fast enough you can chase the runs right on down and the result will be an appearance of run free.

    Use a bigger brush and don't try to be neat.. just flood it on.. if you miss a spot keep going.. the second coat will melt everything together and the spot will become invisable..

    Don't dab, poke or be timid,  Big strokes!  That's why the house painter brush.  It holds a lot of shellac. Beware the dry brush problem.. Shellac dries so fast that unless you are constantly flooding it on you will suffer from dry brush and the resulting poor surface..

     Now it takes about 15 minutes to dry, Honestly!  from the point you first flooded some on untill you can grab a chunk of sandpaper and sand off the nubs that get raised it's about 15 minutes.  I use the 3M sanding sponge.. never ever sand with the palm of your hands.  use either a sanding sponge or sanding block.. Use the 220 grit sponge or 220 sandpaper!

    It's a real lick and a promise type sanding.  I mean one sq foot of area should take about one to one and 1/2 seconds.. that's all!.   All you are doing is removing the nubs that get raised when you first put a finish on wood.. 

      Now flood on the second coat. It will take about 30 minutes to dry, then check to see if you got all the nubs with your sanding and if not a quick sanding should finish them off for good..   sand only the spots that you feel nubs.. don't worry about scratch marks etc.. (remember each coat melts into the previous coat)

     The third coat will take about an hour to dry.   Usually that's enough,, however if you are going to go for the classic polished finish that shellac is capable of you'll probably need to add more coats and each coat basically doubles the drying time, 1 hour , two hours , 4 hours etc..

   The three rules about my approach,

      1.     over thin using denatured alcohol.. (please remember not paint thinner, or anything else except denatured alcohol)

     2.   Paint really fast, flood it on!

     3.   Shellac dries extremely fast, don't go backover!

    

    The classic polished finish is basically a sanding matter.  Ask and I'll explain that too!

3. 
   Gretchen | May 15, 2007 03:20pm | #3

   As others have pointed out, two very different things. And the "original color" will not be maintained.  BUT if you are saying "a coat of wipe on poly" as your final finish, that is not anything like enough finish.

   Gretchen
4. 
   princewood | May 15, 2007 07:01pm | #4

   The only finish I would put on pine is Zinsser's Bulls Eye Shellac.  The natural tannins of pine will bleed through any other finish.  The clear finish dries to the touch in 10 minutes recoat in 45 minutes.  It will tend to golden somewhat with age.  Cleans up with alcohol.  You can also get it tinted with white if you are painting pine.  It works great as a  base coat and can be painted over with acrylic paint or oil paint.

    

5. 
   Joe Sullivan | May 16, 2007 04:24pm | #5

   I agree with Frenchy and the others about using shellac.  It is safe, easy to use, and easy to fix.  It is one of the best barriers to water vapor.  It will also prevent bleed through from the pine, which is a serious issue as you may know.  For example, I have a wall of saddle racks in the barn, made of pine, and painted with three coats of white exterior gloss latex enamel.  I am getting bleed-through here and there.  If I had been using my head when I made them a couple of years ago, I would have first sealed with shellac or with a shellac-based product like Kilz or BIN.

   If you don't want to mix your own shellac (quite easy to do, BTW), your best bet to retain the original color is probably Zinsser Seal Coat, which is a very clear ultra blonde pre-mixed shellac.  It is very good stuff.  I recently used it to coat a Welsh dresser made of pine.  The color shift is lighter than what happens when you put water on the wood.  The regular Zinsser "clear" has more of a cast, and is not quite so clear as the Seal Coat.  ZInsser "Amber" is much yellower than what you appear to want. It will give your pine a golden cast, that will shade towards brown with multiple coats.