Finishing Workshop @ CW – Brushing Exercise

The syllabus for a two or three day workshop is necessarily limited to those practices that can be accomplished within that time frame, excluding anything dealing with oil-based finishes.  Accordingly I restrict the materials covered to include only spirit varnishes and wax.

The first exercise begun is applying a premium brushed finish with shellac.  Since I have scads of it we used Lemon #1 shellac dissolved in either 190 proof grain alcohol or premium alcohol blends (I am testing a custom blend solvent sample from a proprietary manufacturer based on my input, and thus far it is looking good.)  We mixed our solution with the general proportions of one part powdered resin to two parts solvent, which yields a roughly 2 pound cut.

My technique of brushing includes a surprisingly small brush applying the varnish in sections arranged in a serpentine pattern over the complete surface, blending the margins of each sector along the way.  A detailed verbal description would take several paragraphs if not pages, you’ll just have to see me do it some time.  When done, if the starting point is not wet, repeat the application process until the starting point is still wet when you get to the end of the application.  I call this unit “one inning” of finishing,  which can be as many as a half dozen consecutive applications depending on the situation, and a complete brushed shellac finish usually takes three or four innings to get to the sublime.

Given the schedule for this workshop, the first inning was at the beginning of Day 1.

A light sanding of the first inning and the application of the second inning at the end of Day 1,  (note the wetness being ascertained via direct touch; if the surface is tacky, do it again.  If it is wet, you are done.)

 

and the second light sanding and the third inning at the beginning of Day 2.

With this approach we were able to get a great foundation of a hand-rubbed surface that glowed at the end of the workshop.

Stay tuned.