Advise for finishing inlaid art...

[Jim Frye]

Hi everyone,

I have started making wood veneer artwork and have questions on what finish would be best. I'm looking for easy and foolproof. I use naturally dark and light wood without staining so I can sand before finishing. I read about sanding with oil to fill the grain, but I can't do that due to the naturally light and dark wood grain filling with darker particles. I tried it and the grain of the maple darkened noticeably.

What I have settled into doing is this. I put together and glue up my piece. Remove it from the press and sand with my random orbit with 220. Next step is apply a coat of Danish Oil (golden oak) this adds a touch of color to the light wood, usually some sort of maple, and really darkens the dark wood, (walnut, mahogany, African wenge). After three days I brush on a coat of Zinsser clear shellac. When dry I rub down with 0000 steel wool, then a coat of shellac from a spray can. I don't touch it after that. This finish is easy, pretty much fool proof, but shows, and even almost amplifies the grain. It's as if the sprayed shellac avoids the indentations of the grain, or is sucked into it. However like I said it's easy, and fool proof, which just means to me that I can get repeatable results, which is a very good thing.

It's not that I don't like the results, but I wanted to here from experienced wood workers on the subject. Please refrain from recommending french polishing, or other difficult or complicated processes as I would like to make some money at this. I simply can not spend weeks on a simple piece of art.

Here are some pictures to emphasize the grain in the finish.

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[Wayne Lomman]

Jim, nice work. Is spraying an option? If so, it will give us many more possible ways to get a good job quickly. Cheers

[Jim Frye]

Hi Wayne, You can spray Zinsser shellac directly from a can using a cheap harbor freight siphon fed air brush, it works great. However they now have Zinsser shellac in spray cans and that's what I have been using to avoid having to clean my airbrush. :)

[Wayne Lomman]

Jim, sorry for the delay getting back - too much to do. The problem is that the coatings you are applying have no real substance and are just vanishing into the grain. There is a solution however.

I would forget the oil. If you want the colour, stain the pieces separately before assembly using a non oily stain. Then try using a clear grain filler such as Aquacoat or Crystalac. Both are water borne and applied by hand. If you don't stain, apply the filler first according to the directions and then apply the top coats you want. If you do stain, spray a light sealer coat to bind the stain and then fill according to the product instructions. The fillers are quick drying and overall doing it this way will shorten the time for polishing. Also steel wool is not a very good abrasive for polishing. It leaves bits of steel in the finish. It's much better to use fine sandpaper. Cheers

[Jim Frye]

Hi Wayne, Thanks for the reply. I am using curly, birds eye or figured maple on many of these works. I tried not using the oil and the chatoyance is adversely effected. The finish looked very flat when I skipped the danish oil. I will research the grain fillers you recommended. Thanks

[Wayne Lomman]

Jim, with any luck the fillers won't mask the chatoyance but they may. The reason I asked about spraying as an option is that you can get good sprayed coating products that will solve all the problems. I generally use a 2 pack polyurethane straight up - you get good filling and absolute clarity. The trick is to stop before the grain is 100% full so that you still have the appearance of timber instead of plastic. Your finish will look flat without the oil because the oil application lightly burnishes the surface before you spray it. The spray product you are using is so low in solids that it won't perform without something under it. Cheers