Jamie Buxton
07-10-2005, 8:43 PM
I've been experimenting with metallic leaf as accents on wood furniture. (Metallic leaf is like gold leaf, except that it is made from other metals.)
To clearcoat it, I tried my usual sprayed waterborne varnish (Emtech). I figured I'd varnish the wood and the metal at the same time. However, the varnish doesn't flow out properly on the metal, and doesn't bond to it. My suspicion is that the leaf has some sort of wax or oil left on it from the manufacturing process. All the articles and books I've read solve the problem by clearcoating with solvent-based varnish or lacquer. I don't really want to spray solvent-based finishes. Has anybody encountered this problem and found a solution?
To clearcoat it, I tried my usual sprayed waterborne varnish (Emtech). I figured I'd varnish the wood and the metal at the same time. However, the varnish doesn't flow out properly on the metal, and doesn't bond to it. My suspicion is that the leaf has some sort of wax or oil left on it from the manufacturing process. All the articles and books I've read solve the problem by clearcoating with solvent-based varnish or lacquer. I don't really want to spray solvent-based finishes. Has anybody encountered this problem and found a solution?