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Laquer, wet sanding, buffing, etc.

Dave Hawksford said:
Dave as with any coats of anything the wood will take on the natural look and be darker when you apply the finish. Take some Lacquer thinner and wipe on the wood you will see the natural color. With Lacquer as a finish the color you saw with the thinner is the color you will get with the lacquer finish. It will be a truer color finish then any other product unless you use a Acrylic lacquer finish, that's the closest to clear that I know of.
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I agree 100% with Dave Hawksford.
Now, I would also like to clear up one misconception on finishes when it comes to the term "Clear". "Clear" means you can see through it. It also means a slight ambering, they just don't explain that part. With no ambering at all like in an acrylic, the correct term is "Water White".
"Clear" is normally a desireable feature because the slight ambering gives the wood a more natural warm color to it. If you put "Water White" on say for example, red oak. The oak looks lifeless. It looks exactly the same as when you sanded it. "Water White" like in acrylics are desireable when you are using colors like, red, blue, green, etc. This is where you dont want that slight amber to change your color.
Hope that thoroughly confuses you :huh::rofl:
 
Toni as with most wood worker few know squat and less know anything :rofl: So educating this group of sawdust brains is a major task.:rofl::rofl: Thanks for the clarification :thumb: I may seem sometimes like I'm out in left field but Hey it's a legal high LOL

I get a lot of contractors who work with wood all day coming in the shop asking me to make this stain or advise them how to do that or this. Sometime I wounder how these guys ever lasted this long in their field.:dunno::rofl::rofl:
 
When I worked at HD for a few yrs after retiring, a fellow co worker was a trained luthier. He was building and selling guitars, building them in his basement shop. I remember him saying it took a month to put the high gloss finish on. Spraying, sanding, spraying, building up 10 coats IIRC. Wet sanding with 1200, and must have done a polishing stage. I think he said he waited a few days between coats for the lacquer to cure before spraying the next coat. He was using ML Campbell magnalac.
 
Dave Black said:
...would the standard canton buffs work well for buffing lacquer on wood?
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I think they'd do a great job. Either of those canton wheels has to be better than the cheapie wheels I've gotten at Lowes, and even those have given me very acceptable results.
 
Here are a few buffing picks, sand , re-coat , apply comet and buff then wax.
 

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Dave Black said:
what type of buffing compound should I use for lacquer?
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The most common approach (and it works good) is tripoli on one wheel, followed by white diamond on another. The other approach, and the one I'm using the most these days, is Don Pencil's "PL" compound. Just by itself, it seems to get as good of results as using the tripoli/white diamond combination. The only caveat to the PL compound is that it works best with a relatively slow buffing speed...about 800 RPM is what I shoot for.

With either of these methods, I usually wet or dry sand lightly with 600 grit paper before buffing. The 600 grit removes the dust nibs and any orange peel surface in the finish, then the buffing removes all the 600 grit scratches.

I have some pen barrels that I need to buff tonight. I'll try some side-by-side tests using tripoli/white diamond on some and PL on others, and see if I can detect any difference in the finished product.
 
For furniture I use comet and paint thinner.
Now for what Vaugh is talking about. When I finish gun stocks I will take a damp rag or sponge and slightly wet the wood surface to raise the grain and then with 600 gt paper sand and repeat that 5 to 6 times. then I'll take 100% tung oil and just a drop applied to the wood and begin to buff with the palm on my hand. The heat generated works the oil into the wood. I can get 4-5 coats on a day with this method. And I will work in 15 to 20 coats. This method may take 5-6 days to complete. Just depends on the weather.
 
Dave Hawksford said:
For furniture I use comet and paint thinner.
Now for what Vaugh is talking about. When I finish gun stocks I will take a damp rag or sponge and slightly wet the wood surface to raise the grain and then with 600 gt paper sand and repeat that 5 to 6 times. then I'll take 100% tung oil and just a drop applied to the wood and begin to buff with the palm on my hand. The heat generated works the oil into the wood. I can get 4-5 coats on a day with this method. And I will work in 15 to 20 coats. This method may take 5-6 days to complete. Just depends on the weather.
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My dad was a custom rifle maker and he had a saying for TruOil.

"Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, and once a year for the rest of your life."

I use Prepsol for a liquid, it dries slow enough and removes any oils as you work.
 
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