Mike Saffold
12-15-2009, 11:51 AM
Hello everyone. I've been a reader of these forums for over a year and thanks too all the good information on tool selection and shop set up. I have finally built my first piece of actual furniture. Or so I thought. As you all know and I recently found out. finishing is just as important as the actual construction. Unfortunately the arcane art of finishing seems to be much more complex. I have researched all over the net. Have bought several books on finishing, heck I even read a few of them, and now I at least have some idea of how much I don't know.
If I knew then what I know now (which ain't a lot) I don't think I would have strapped on my respirator and brushed the Potassium Dichromate onto my beautiful though obviously flawed painstakingly crafted Mahogany breakfast bar.
Here's where I could use some help. I built a curved mahogany breakfast bar top and decided to use Potassium Dichromate to color the wood and it looked good. I then decided to go for a mirror gloss and hard finish. Based on all the research I did , most of the good info I found came from this website so thanks again, I chose to fill the pores with Behlen water based filler and I plan to finish with Behlen Rockhard varnish. After coloring with the Potassium Dichromate I applied a 50% thinned seal-coat of the varnish and then the filler. Here's my problem; in sanding off the filler I have sanded through the coloring in places.
My question is; what to do next? Should I attempt to "touch up" the light areas with more Potassium Dichromate? Would that react strangely with the sealed and filled wood? Should I now use some other staining technique? Should I burn the whole damn thing in a fire, which is what I wanted to do after a wiped of the dust from sanding the filler and saw what had happened to the color. By the way. Yes, now I know I should have tried out my finishing schedule on a scrap of the mahogany. Lesson learned the hard way.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Mike Saffold
Tampa FL
If I knew then what I know now (which ain't a lot) I don't think I would have strapped on my respirator and brushed the Potassium Dichromate onto my beautiful though obviously flawed painstakingly crafted Mahogany breakfast bar.
Here's where I could use some help. I built a curved mahogany breakfast bar top and decided to use Potassium Dichromate to color the wood and it looked good. I then decided to go for a mirror gloss and hard finish. Based on all the research I did , most of the good info I found came from this website so thanks again, I chose to fill the pores with Behlen water based filler and I plan to finish with Behlen Rockhard varnish. After coloring with the Potassium Dichromate I applied a 50% thinned seal-coat of the varnish and then the filler. Here's my problem; in sanding off the filler I have sanded through the coloring in places.
My question is; what to do next? Should I attempt to "touch up" the light areas with more Potassium Dichromate? Would that react strangely with the sealed and filled wood? Should I now use some other staining technique? Should I burn the whole damn thing in a fire, which is what I wanted to do after a wiped of the dust from sanding the filler and saw what had happened to the color. By the way. Yes, now I know I should have tried out my finishing schedule on a scrap of the mahogany. Lesson learned the hard way.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Mike Saffold
Tampa FL