chris rand
04-08-2022, 9:18 PM
I'm making a live edge dining table out of English Elm, and I have some finishing questions.
I have a 1 foot x 4 foot extra piece of the slab that I've been using as a test board for various stain/finish combos, and after about 20 different tries found one that my wife likes, but it's a bit unusual (I think), and I ant to see if anyone has any experience with it.
The one combo that looked best was a first coat of BLO, followed by a coat of Old Masters gel stain, followed by a top coat of Waterlox.
My questions are:
1) The Waterlox website says that gel stains, because of the high amount of solids in them, can prevent the Waterlox from penetrating into the wood. Since I already have a coat of BLO, I think it highly likely that it won't penetrate. However, it still should give all of the surface protection that you would expect from Waterlox, correct?
2) After comparing the 20 different other combos of various stains and Waterlox, the one with BLO as a first coat definitely had more fire/shimmer to the grain. As I was doing my test board, I only let the one coat of BLO dry for about an hour before I applied the gel stain. I know that BLO normally has a much longer drying time. If I allow the BLO to dry more thoroughly, and apply 2 or 3 coats before the coat of gel stain, will the fire/shimmer increase? Or will the coat of BLO just simply get harder and thicker and completely prevent the gel stain from absorbing into the wood at all?
Any comments about whether BLO/gel stain/Waterlox is a good or bad idea would be appreciated.
I have a 1 foot x 4 foot extra piece of the slab that I've been using as a test board for various stain/finish combos, and after about 20 different tries found one that my wife likes, but it's a bit unusual (I think), and I ant to see if anyone has any experience with it.
The one combo that looked best was a first coat of BLO, followed by a coat of Old Masters gel stain, followed by a top coat of Waterlox.
My questions are:
1) The Waterlox website says that gel stains, because of the high amount of solids in them, can prevent the Waterlox from penetrating into the wood. Since I already have a coat of BLO, I think it highly likely that it won't penetrate. However, it still should give all of the surface protection that you would expect from Waterlox, correct?
2) After comparing the 20 different other combos of various stains and Waterlox, the one with BLO as a first coat definitely had more fire/shimmer to the grain. As I was doing my test board, I only let the one coat of BLO dry for about an hour before I applied the gel stain. I know that BLO normally has a much longer drying time. If I allow the BLO to dry more thoroughly, and apply 2 or 3 coats before the coat of gel stain, will the fire/shimmer increase? Or will the coat of BLO just simply get harder and thicker and completely prevent the gel stain from absorbing into the wood at all?
Any comments about whether BLO/gel stain/Waterlox is a good or bad idea would be appreciated.