I recently finished building a QS White Oak bench, shelves, and
surrouding panelling for our mudroom entrance.

My goals in finishing a
- I would like to darken the wood (a little) and bring out more of the
natural color, beauty, and flecking of the QS White Oak

- I want to give it a strong protective coat from the abuse
and wetness that one can get in a mudroom.

I am at best a novice at finishing having only used basic Home Depot
stains & polys.

So:
- How fine should I sand?
Is 220 enough?
Can I use my ROS the whole way or should I switch to by hand at
some point?

- Do I need to seal or fill pores in White Oak before?
If so, what products do you recommend?

- What type of stain works best on White Oak?
Are gel stains better than "normal" oil-based stains?
Any suggestions on brand or color to give it a little deeper &
warmer natural oak color?

- What type of final finish?
Poly? Shellac? other?
What sheen is typically best for bench or panelling? (I'm
thinking maybe satin???)
How many coats?

I know some of the answers are subjective, but I would love to get
some expert opinions.

On Fri, 16 May 2008 22:37:16 GMT, blueman wrote:

- How fine should I sand?
Is 220 enough?
Can I use my ROS the whole way or should I switch to by hand at
some point?

- Do I need to seal or fill pores in White Oak before?
If so, what products do you recommend?

- What type of stain works best on White Oak?
Are gel stains better than "normal" oil-based stains?
Any suggestions on brand or color to give it a little deeper &
warmer natural oak color?

- What type of final finish?
Poly? Shellac? other?
What sheen is typically best for bench or panelling? (I'm
thinking maybe satin???)
How many coats?

I know some of the answers are subjective, but I would love to get
some expert opinions.

With your equipment and experience:

I'd stop @ 150 with the ROS, then hand sand WITH THE GRAIN with 150 on
a hard felt or rubber block. Woodcraft sells really nice hard felt
sanding blocks for about $5.

Next, I'd wipe the entire item down with "Robert's Blend", which is
simply equal amounts of Seal Coat shellac, Boiled Linseed Oil, and
genuine (pine base) turpentine. Seal Coat is dewaxed shellac, as is
the dewaxed flake you mix yourself, Zinnser "Clear" and "Amber" have
wax, and are not suitable.

I'd then wipe on 3-5 coats of Minwax wipe-on poly, lightly scuffing
with 0000 steel wool between coats. Use the steel wool properly by
unfolding it and orienting the wires ACROSS your rubbing direction.

Since you're going to do this entire process on a scrap board before
you'll do the whole item (hint... hint... G) do 1/2 of the scrap
with satin and the other with gloss, and decide what YOU like. You
can also mix satin and gloss together to create sheens in between.

I only fill White Oak pores on table tops, and sometimes, I don't even
do those.

With my equipment and experience, I'd spray it with ML Campbell
Ultrastar or DuraVar, or "Kwick Kleen Fast Dry Poly, in place of the
wiped poly. This is mainly for speed and the fast dry time of tehse
products that doesn't allow dust to stick.

What "Robert's Blend" looks like on white oak, with a semi-gloss
lacquer:
http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html

The drawer sides are maple, with Ultrastar only, for a comparison.
Note the warm color of the oak. I normally prefer dull lacquer, but
the gloss was required to match another item.


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** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

B A R R Y wrote:



What "Robert's Blend" looks like on white oak, with a semi-gloss
lacquer:
http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html

The drawer sides are maple, with Ultrastar only, for a comparison.
Note the warm color of the oak. I normally prefer dull lacquer, but
the gloss was required to match another item.


---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

When you finish the drawer fronts with the dovetail do you do them when they
are together or apart? If apart does the finish cause the glue not to
stick? I'm a little new to finishing and dovetails but getting ready to
attempt it. Or is this the result of the different wood species and the end
grain of the dovetail standing out??

--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

On May 16, 8:16 pm, B A R R Y wrote:

SNIP of great guidance...


What "Robert's Blend" looks like on white oak, with a semi-gloss
lacquer:
http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html

Hey, thanks for the tip of the hat!


Barry - I thought you would get a charge out of this. I recently got
down to the bottom of my KK stuff, and decided to see how well it
would brush. In all this time, I have never tried it!

Nor will I again. It was such an overwhelming disaster that I finally
stopped putting it on as I had the worst mess I have ever made when
finishing. It was just a test, no harm/no foul, but WOW... when Dave
said it definitely wasn't brushing lacquer - HE WASN'T KIDDING!

Seriously, what a mess. But since it was on scrap, it still makes me
laugh.

Robert

"RF" wrote

- What type of stain works best on White Oak?
Are gel stains better than "normal" oil-based stains?
Any suggestions on brand or color to give it a little deeper &
warmer natural oak color?

Rockler carries a gel stain called "Mission Oak" that is made by the
Lawrence McFadden Co. It is an excellent product and I find that a single
coat of the stain will generally get you where you want to be with regard to
a traditional white oak color.

The two examples below have only a single coat of this particular gel stain
and no top coat. The top coat will be up to you and the environment.

http://www.e-woodshop.net/images/MSB5.JPG
http://www.e-woodshop.net/images/CornCab22.jpg

Two coats will give you a much darker effect, and keep in mind that your
choice of top coat can also have an impact on the final color.

I personally don't bother will filler on quarter sawn white oak ... YMMV, so
experiment on scrap.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 5/14/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)

On Sat, 17 May 2008 02:47:38 GMT, evodawg wrote:



When you finish the drawer fronts with the dovetail do you do them when they
are together or apart?

Together and apart, or a combo! G Depends on the project...

Sometimes, the finishing process needs to be split into coloring and
coating stages. In this case, I preferred to color individually, and
coat as one.

In this case, I wanted the drawer sides and insides finished, so
here's what I did:

- I rubbed the QSWO portions with Robert's Blend for color, assembled
the drawer (minus the bottom) with glue, and sprayed the assembly with
Ultrastar

- I sprayed the bottoms alone, then installed them into grooves, with
two small screws up from the bottom into the drawer backs.

Spraying the drawers without bottoms cuts way down on bounce-back and
associated orange peel.

If apart does the finish cause the glue not to
stick?

It probably would. Blue masking tape is your friend.

I'm a little new to finishing and dovetails but getting ready to
attempt it. Or is this the result of the different wood species and the end
grain of the dovetail standing out??

I try to make my dovetails (regardless of method) so the pins are
slightly (1/64"-1/32") proud, and easily trainable with a sharp plane.
This allows for a nice final fit, and prevents the alternative of
having to plane down an entire drawer side, due to too shallow cuts
for the tails. When all that is done, finishing after assembly makes
sense. So this would be my most common choice.

Now, for some other views...

For dressers and clothing chests, I don't finish drawer sides and
interiors at all. I like to use pine or cedar sides, and BB ply
bottoms, and put absolutely nothing on them. Here, I'd color the
fronts if necessary, run a strip of blue tape along the back edge of
the DT's (where the "depth scribe" lands when hand cutting) and finish
the front

You'd also not want to pre-finish drawer front edges and ends that
might need to be planed for final fitting to an opening.

If you look closely at antiques, it's not uncommon to see a stripe of
stain along the dovetails where the front was colored after
attachment. This is also common where a colored oil was used to
finish the fronts after assembly.

So, the final answer is... it's up to you! As usual in woodworking,
there are 15 paths to a final result.

---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

On Fri, 16 May 2008 23:05:47 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
Barry - I thought you would get a charge out of this. I recently got
down to the bottom of my KK stuff, and decided to see how well it
would brush. In all this time, I have never tried it!

Nor will I again. It was such an overwhelming disaster that I finally
stopped putting it on as I had the worst mess I have ever made when
finishing. It was just a test, no harm/no foul, but WOW... when Dave
said it definitely wasn't brushing lacquer - HE WASN'T KIDDING!

Seriously, what a mess. But since it was on scrap, it still makes me
laugh.

Duly noted.

It's always worth a shot, though...

---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

On Sat, 17 May 2008 08:15:13 -0400, B A R R Y

I try to make my dovetails (regardless of method) so the pins are
slightly (1/64"-1/32") proud, and easily trainable with a sharp plane.

That's "TRIMMABLE"!

Damn spell check...

---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

"B A R R Y" wrote in message
On Sat, 17 May 2008 08:15:13 -0400, B A R R Y

I try to make my dovetails (regardless of method) so the pins are
slightly (1/64"-1/32") proud, and easily trainable with a sharp plane.

That's "TRIMMABLE"!

Damn spell check...

Wirks iether whey ...



--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 5/14/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)

"blueman" wrote

- How fine should I sand?
Is 220 enough?
Can I use my ROS the whole way or should I switch to by hand at
some point?

IME, and when applying stain and a film finish to a project, going finer
than 180 is not even necessary, and may not even be desirable due less
absorption/penetration of the pigments when sanded at higher grits.

That said, a _light_ hand sanding with 220 to ease the edges usually won't
have that much impact on absorption/pigment penetration, IME.

When using an oil/poly finish, a la Sam Maloof, is about the only time I go
above 220, usually to 320... YMMV.

As always, experiment with the stain of your choice on scraps as you may
find that the final sanding grit can have an impact on the darkness/depth of
color, or the number of coats you will need to get you where you want to be.


--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 5/14/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)