Fire Fighting Plaque

That's a beauty!

Love it!!  Great workmanship!!

Jess that is one handsome looking piece sure to adorn any firehouse wall with pride! What kind of clear goes on that masterpiece?

Gloss, semi gloss, or satin lacquer.  If I am needing to  hide some flaws I am too lazy to remove or sand out then the satin finish is the one to use.

  For anyone not familiar with what satin lacquer will do to help out a poor excuse of a finish, one needs to experiment.  No reason to fear though as you are thinking now I wish I had have used gloss. After the lacquer has dried a day or so use 0000 steel wool and some Johnson's paste wax as the lub and buff it out. I actually do this on all my lacquer finishes. I also don't do anything but lacquer. The first thing the customer does when you deliver his furniture back to him, he will rub his fingers over the finish and a smile will come on his face, that smile will also make the charges on your bill disappear and he will say yes my great great grand fathers potty was worth the thousand you just charged me..; It will look more closely to your high dollar antique furniture someone emptied your pockets when you hired them to restore said pile of wood. Been there and done that many times.

   I always use gloss for the first coats, no matter how many then when you think that is the best you can do and you have been lightly sanding between coats with steel wool or 320 or finer, steel wool it all down, blow off the dust plus I use a very fine wide soft paint brush with the air compressor. I go a little bit more for I use me hand to tell me if there is more dust remaining I need to remove before I spray.   Then when clean, spray one coat of satin. No air compressor you say, then stop what you are doing right now and stop doing woodworking completely and go in the house and sit is a chair the rest of your life. My air compressor is the most used tool in my shop.

  And yes if you own an air compressor then a water trap should be added as close to the end of the line as you can get it.

 If satin is used from start to finish with many coats, you will get a hazy look to the clear finish for the satin is made with silca, sand, which causes the haze and the satin look..Lots and lots of coats and the finish will  start looking like one of our sand storms, hey west texas I am talking about you.

   People says you need to drain your tank every night. I say hog wash. There is no way in hell the moisture in that tank thats sticking to every square inch of the inside can be removed. Impossible, but if a person is relieved as if he is trying to help, then by all means he needs to make a schedule like every hour to walk over and turn that knob, so be it..

Questions to me are not answered in one or two words. There is more to life than that.

  Then as you are leaving you get to hear those famous words again, well my friend told me I would be happy with your work.

Turned out fantastic Patch. Perfect amount of color versus natural. Great tribute piece. Thanks for sharing.

That is a beauty Jess!  What/how did you get the textured appearance inside the circle?

Very awesome my friend,

Cal

Cal just playing around. sprayed a coat of clear lacquer then sprinkled  fine silver glitter then another coat of clear. I can never leave things like they were. Sometimes for the better,sometimes not.