Ok now I have added a couple of pieces I french polished ,just to prove I have not always been enamored with laquer.
In my opinion french polish is unsurpassed as far as a finish is concerned, however it is fragile and temperamental because the application technique takes time and patience to perfect. Laquer is a far more forgiving and thus is a preferred finish because of its capability to absorb abuse, it seals the wood effectively and provides excellent protection to it.
The trick is to find a way to make a laquer finish to look for all intents and purposes like a french polish finish
Still and all, and the entire point of my displeasure with the railing against Norm's choice of finishes, it's all a matter of what YOU like to do, are comfortable doing, and have the means to do. It's also a matter of personal taste as well as, as you mentioned, functionality.
No one finish can possibly meet all of those requirements. Some may be more desirable than others, some may even have more of a cachet than others, but at the end of the day each choice of finish is a legitimate choice from the standpoint of the craftsman. Anyone else's opinion doesn't mean spit and it isn't a measure of the worth of the craftsman.
Well I must admit I agree with you. If the craftsman wishes and likes an inferior finish thats up to the individual. apparently Norms choice of finishes was that a mahogany stain was too red so he used a walnut stain .I wonder which of the hundreds of mahogany stains he was referring to.Of course you and I realize a stain is not a finish, just a colorant anyway. And I agree with you no one finish can possibly meet all reqirements ,however laquer meets most ,can you suggest one that does meet those requirements better ? I have not found it, perhaps you can enlighten me .
As I said earlier however well a piece is designed or built if the finish is crap so is the piece ....mjh
The first episode of the Windsor chair aired here over the weekend. Chair making was demonstrated by an expert. Many specialized jigs and hand carving of the seta. Norm did the same including using the hand tools
to carve the seat. Next week a return to the chair makers shop is promised to see the expert on finishing. Sounds like just what you want. John
How about the one ...there was a young girl from Madras who had a very fine ass, not round and pink as you may think, but was grey, had long ears and who ate grass. alway did like that one ....mjh
Specifically, it refers to a precondition for infallible declarations by the Pope. He must be speaking on matters of faith and morals and must declare his intent to be speaking "ex cathedra"; that is, with the authority conferred on St. Peter as Pastor and chief Doctor of the church.
For a more scholarly treatment see the following:
"A sheriff could never subpoeni Giovanni Baptiste Montini {1} Cause no one would ever dare quibble With a man who is infallibibble"
(unknown c. 1970's C.E.)
{1) aka Pope Paul VI (rip)
Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret) Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet Website:
My point it that most of Norm's project are complete quickly, much faster than the new guy starting out. He makes it looks so easy that people have expectations that they will be able to do the same if they have a Wood-O-Matic, just like Norm. I would think you'd be clever enough to have noticed that.
Okay, Mr. TV Producer, how exactly would you produce the show? Remember, you only have 24 minutes (less, if it's not on PBS) to get your episode in.
How much time do you want to devote to repairing gaffs?
In the wine cabinet episode, he cut 100 pieces for the rack; how many of those cuts should have been shown so as to avoid anyone getting the impression that it ain't as easy as it looks?
Should we see all the dadoes being cut so that no one thinks this project is cake?
Duuhhh, I only saw him plane one board...duuhhh, does that mean I don't have to plane the others? Yuck, yuck, yuck.
How about ALL of the brads? Include them?
Clearly there's much more sanding that needs to be done than is regularly shown. We can't have people thinking that not much sanding is needed; perhaps we can show more of that.
Some of the "experts" here already rag on the program for not demonstrating the filling of brad holes; maybe we better get 20 or 30 seconds of that in there. Shoot, we have allegedly smart people right here on the wreck that think that since they didn't show that he must have slathered the inappropriate finish right over those gaping crevasses.
We only have 24 minutes available, if we include all of that, what do we leave out?
Come on, you must have a better idea of how we can best serve the great unwashed. Tell us the wreck approved method of taking 16+ hours of work and compressing it into 24 minutes of TV woodworking show production without making it look too easy.
Maybe an entire show. You really could devote a lot of time showing how to recover from errors.
Cutting 100? That is easy once you have the setup done. I've often made two or three items at a time because it is so easy one you've determined the dimension and set the tools. Making triplicates does not take three times as long as making one and then Ih ave a couple of gifts.
Maybe nothing. If the project is big enough, take two shows to do it.
What is the intention of the show aside from making money? Educate? Demonstrate? How about a show devoted to different woods and different finishes? Maybe that would be of interest, but then they could not sell a measured drawing. How about a show devoted to tools (both hand and powered) and what they can do? That would make his sponsors happy and the Viewers would know how to properly use a plane, brad nailer and biscuit joiner. (yes, I have all three).
There are all sorts of viewers every week, some brand new, some seasoned fans, all looking for new ideas or education. So why not mix it up a little? Why do I watch? To see just how he does certain things. While a particular project may not appeal to me, I may learn a better way to do a dado, rout a groove, or mount some hardware that can be applied to a competely different project.
One thing I would do though (getting back to my original post) is to use real walnut instead of putting walnut stain on mahogany. Since it was a TV tray, I'd use poly for the finish because of it durability and ease of cleaning.
But is was wood related and I voiced my opinion. Rather that use stain, he could have bought real walnut for less than the mahogany he was coloring. Hey, that's just my opinion and you can voice yours also. Ed
Ken ,When I started out I was renting in a city environment and working out of a basement ,spray equipment was out of the question ,so I learned to French polish. French polishing is fine for chairs and any thing that the surface is not subject to any chemicals such as water alcohol etc .
The dining table that I added to the my web site was French polished at the customers insistence [even though I recommended against it ] it looked beautiful . The table surface was ruined several years later when her husband passed away and the table was set up for a wake by her friends and neighbors .
Over the years I have evolved a procedure ,and a procedure is the trick , something you do time and time again and it guarantees a satisfactory result practically every time .
Initially I used alaline and other water stains because they were the best unpigmented stains and when French polished they stayed put. however they are a pain to use because they raise the grain .To avoid this I would "water " the surface at least three times with a glue size let it dry and resand before staining the piece, very time consuming. So to reduce the workload I started using the alcohol and laquer analine stains ,essentially they are non grain raising . The problem I found with these when French polished they amalgamated with the polish and became blotchy . when shot with laquer products they would migrate as the laquer and alcohol were natural solvents for the stains . I went through a bunch of stains and finally can across stains by Mohawk [behlen] called "ultra"stains which did not bleed had a long "open" time and were unpigmented.I have used them ever since . I have recently used some pigmented MLCampbell stains on some walnut which I found lightened the walnut, it was by accident and I have yet to understand why this stain does lighten walnut.
So I now base stain with ultra stains [my favorite being brown mahogany]. In addition to the basic stain colors the mahoganies and walnuts I also have green red and black . these allow my to warm the stain [adding red] ,harden it [add green, kills red], or darken it [add black] I forgot lighten any stain [add reducer].
So I stain to get the color as I want it then I shoot it with sealer to trap the color in .after that I shoot again several times rubbing down lightly between coats,after that two or three at most coats of laquer [all MLCampbell products] before the final coat goes on I usually cover the whole thing with a coat of asphaltum ,a rich dark brown stain thinned with mineral spirits . while still wet as much as possible is wiped off with a rag so all that is left is in the cracks and crevices and will give life to the finish and any carved detail, leave this to dry overnight then apply the final coat of laquer .
I always use gloss laquer ,so the piece will end up looking rather "bright" so I take a 0000 steel wool pad soaked in water and "woolwax" [behlem product] and rub the whole thing down to a eggshell finish. To me it looks pretty good. that's my finishing procedure mjh
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