Six Rules

#3 When you are using a new product or technique always do trials / samples

There’s rarely a process where you can just jump in blind and “fake it until you make it.”   Athletes practice, musicians play the same piece over and over until they master it, chefs make things before they present to others, public speakers (and comedians) practice a speech and revise as needed.  Finishing is no different.

In short : don’t let your project be your experiment

Step boards: 

A step board is a board that shows each step in the finishing process, sealing, stain, top coat(s), toners, glazes, etc.  It not only provides practice to see where you end up, but shows you what each step of the process should look like when you repeat it.

Sample boards:

IF you are trying to get a specific result, a sample board, showing different alternatives and choices in the process allows you to pick out the one that gets you where you want to be.  Which combination of options works best for you?  If you are doing a job for someone else, it allows them to make their choice instead of just describing it.   It is important to make a sample board with your complete finish schedule -- wood selection, wash coats, stain, sealers, toners, glazes, and top coats, since each of these contribute to the final color (see rule #2)

Sample boards also give you some experience in options.  Have you ever had an instance where you said to yourself, “Now I see what using that product or technique does?”

What experience does

For me, it was in a finishing class where one of the other students had a table that was just turning out too orange.  How to fix that?  The instructor mixed up some blue colorant (a glaze, in this case), wiped it on the table.   Instantly, the orange transmuted into a beautiful brown color.   Who’da thunk?  Lesson in color theory.

If you remember the video on coloring with lye that I shared a couple of weeks ago you'll see that's what he did.  Took some samples of various concentrations and applied them to different woods.   From his samples, he gained experience and allowed his sample boards to help select the look he wanted.

We learn from our failures

For me, it was the first time I used Transtint.  I added to some shellac and brushed it on.   Looked great,, until it dried.  Then it looked streaky.  What I learned: I probably put it on too heavy -- spraying a few light coats would probably have worked better.  How I learned rule #3.  A few years later, a builder brought me a stair bannister that was a pickled oak onto which someone had brushed Polyshades, hoping to get it darker.  Wow, thought my shellac was streaky.   This looked like someone ate a bunch of chocolate, then vomited on it.   When all else fails, even with adjustments, and the result just isn’t getting there despite your best efforts and practices -- there is usually a solution – called a mulligan, stripping and starting over. That's what I had to do.

Have you ever had a finishing project that just didn't turn out like it was advertised on the can?   What did you learn and how did you recover?

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Thanks for this information!

The first and only time I tried Polyshades it didn't turn out like the can said . Really peeved my wife, she had just bought 4 unfinished counter stools and I put the PS on...really ruined them. Can't say that I've made a step board, but I often make samples and adjust from there.

I got a finishing book a couple years ago that was published in the early 1950s.   The author went on for nearly a whole page about how bad these products were and why.   I attended a seminar recently by another major manufacturer who was bringing out a new finish line.  They said they were working on an "all-in-one varnish stain."   l just bit my tongue.  Steve Mickley used to call it, "The worst thing that could happen to a can."

 

Even if it goes on well, a chip or scratch will show white wood and look terrible.

 

I've always considered Polyshades a pigment-heavy toner.   I think toners need to be sprayed on lightly to not look like thinned paint.

 

(end of Polyshades bashing for a while)

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

The first and only time I tried Polyshades it didn't turn out like the can said . Really peeved my wife, she had just bought 4 unfinished counter stools and I put the PS on...really ruined them. Can't say that I've made a step board, but I often make samples and adjust from there.

Were you able to recover or did you strip them, or just live with the ugly?

As it turns out, she painted them. My wife is part artist, so painting (to her) isn't slapping on a coat of paint. It's putting flowers and all kinds of decoration all over the chairs. I think I coated them with shellac before she started, but that was a long time ago.  Eventually the chairs fell apart from rough use, only one remains at one of the daughter's house, and I think the back broke off it.

Edited May 24, 20179 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr