Minwax brushing lacquer

[Father Haskell]

Choice of brush?

Does reducing help flowout?

[SonomaProducts.com]

Natural brush and use the tipping technique; one last light stroke with the brush held exactly perpendicular to the work. Brushing lacquer should already have a retarder to allow flow out.

[Steve Barker]

I used a purdy natural bristle and applied about 5 quarts not too long ago. Straight out of the can, worked great.

[Father Haskell]

Zibra "premium" angle-tipped sash brush won't lay a smooth, unbroken coat for all the cussing I can muster. Seems to work much better for varnish.

[dadiOH]

I've never used Minwax brushing lacquer but I've used a lot of Deft's (many gallons). Various observations...

I flow on with a loaded brush held almost horizontally and moved very slowly. IME, the brush doesn't make much difference; I often use chip brushes.

On the first coat, you can do a lot of back/cross brushing to cover skipped spots and/or even out. You can do the same on subsequent coats but lightly and quickly. If the work is wider than the brush but less than 3x brush, I'll flow on two brush loads, one along both edges, and then cross brush diagonally between them to cover the center. I may or may not tip off depending on how it looks.

Regardless of what you do, the coat will look like hell until it is completely dry; that is because the thickness of the wet lacquer is many times greater than the dry thickness.

IMO, it is pointless to sand each coat of lacquer. I always put on at least three heavy coats - the heavier the better - and let them dry for a couple of days before sanding; I then sand until there are no shiny spots. If I've had to sand a *LOT* I'll put on a couple more heavy coats, let dry and sand again. Once I have sanded and feel that I still have a sufficiently heavy coat remaining, I put on a "shine" coat...that is a coat that has been thinned a lot with thinner (50/50?) and its only purpose is to restore the shine removed by sanding, not to build. I apply that coat with the softest, finest and fullest bristle brush I can lay my hands on (an artist's red sable is good) and I try to apply it as thinly as possible. If the area being coated is small, I often do it with a piece of muslin wrapped around a lemon sized ball of cotton...saturate the cotton and squeeze out almost dry.

If I sand through anywhere, I fix it by putting on a bit of lacquer with my finger and then swiping it rapidly (with finger) so it feathers out all around the spot; I may do that 2-3 times before the final sanding and shine coat.

[Father Haskell]

Damn, just spent $7 for a new Purdy 1" bristle.

First coat of Minwax lacquer levelled out nice. Soaks in very well, judging by how thin the lacquer on the stir stick dried.

Less of a problem with shellac.

Sounds similar to French polish, where the final sessions are glaze coating with 1 lb cut (the most fun part) and spiriting off with few drops of alcohol.

[Pat Barber]

[Father Haskell]

They lay down a smoother coat, just takes more of them. Also 5x more expensive and 5x nastier to breathe. Tempted to build with brush on and top off with a couple of dusting coats of spraybomb lacquer to level out.