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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2557 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 9, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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One thing I keep wondering about is how much I should really put some elbow grease into it when I'm doing the final rub with 0000 steel wool and furniture wax. I did notice the more aggressive I got, the more I got it to a glasslike smoothness. But it would be straight up warm from the friction when I was done, and I was worried about how much finish I might actually be rubbing off with all the effort, so I ultimately erred on the side of being more conservative. Maybe I'll experiment a bit more with my approach as I work on the chairs since I just care about them less.

It's annoyingly inconsistent I think. I've had great results with really working hard as you described. And then sometimes for no seeming discernable reason the same thing seems to take some of the finish off. I'm sure there was something I did wrong, as I am not an expert by any means.

Your work looks really, really good, so I think you can definitely be proud of that!

I know when I did mine and polished to a glass finish, my steel wool pad was already pretty gummed up and dull from the wax. I have raw dogged with steel wool and gone through the shellac in a flash. I was actually just reviewing a Paul Sellers video where he's doing a shellac finish with wax, and he just barely touches it with a dry 0000 steel wool pad, and then comes after with the wax. Never hurts to keep trying different techniques though.

Why shellac instead of an oil?

I like the look and feel of shellac over oil. I also don't like how long it takes an oil to stop off gassing.

Probably because it's a lot more fun to say.

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