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The color of wood can be created in all sorts of different ways, but easily the most popular is "stain", but is it the best? Most woodworkers don't even know about wood dyes, or Aniline Dyes unless perhaps you are Luthier (maker of wooden guitars, violins etc). There are options when it comes to fine tuning the color or your wood project and know what to use and why is important information for woodworkers to know ...
If you are a woodworker, you have probably used wood stain to change or enhance the color of the wood on a wood project you have made or even refinished. During that process when you first opened the can and started to stir the contents, you probably noticed globs of "gunk" that had settled in the bottom of the can ...
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An important point to remember when selecting ANY woodwork finish is that no finish will last forever. All finishes will need to be refreshed or redone at some time in the future. Some finishes need to be re-done as early as 3 months, others can take 30 to 40 years or more before they need refreshing or redoing. The purpose of this article is to give new woodworkers some sort of a head start in trying to assess what direction they might want to go when it comes to finishing their woodworking projects and there is much more to learn.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/9_VRPu5icZQ
So what decides whether a finish needs to be redone or refreshed? Whoever owns the piece at the time, if they are not happy with the finish, needs to be refinished for any number of reasons. Sometimes the woodworker used "green wood", full of water and as it dries it can lift off some finishes, maybe the finish has been worn off in patches just from normal wear and tear like chairs and dining tables, maybe the finish is just old, crackled or dull and has lost its luster, then it may be time to refresh it, so lots of different reasons and circumstances.
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As long as I have been involved in woodwork, people have told me "don't worry about a small mistake, you can fix it with wood filler". But my experience with wood filler of any kind has given me poor results. I decided to try a few combinations of shop-made fillers and one version of commercial fillers, just to see how they work and how they compare. Note: Other Links as talked about in the video are below!!
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/KxnO7re7IOU
Remember too, there are other ways of fixing mistakes and defects in wood during the build process, wood fillers are only one way, and may not be the best way, but sometimes they are the only way ...
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There are many different ways to change the color of wood and the most common is by coating the wood with some sort of a color stain or even a color dye but you can also change the color of wood by using simple household products that change the color of wood by reacting to the tannin in the wood.
Anyone who has ever made wine, especially from scratch, will have heard of tannin, which is just a mild acid that is contained in many wood species of plant, including grapes and vines. In winemaking the tannin is added as a power to enhance the taste of the wine.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6IFHod0Rr00
In woodworking, we can use that same tannin in wood to change the color of the wood by altering it chemically and allowing the tannin to change color during the process.
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I always love trying new products because you never know until you at least try something, just how go it will be and where it is best to use it. I recently had the opportunity to try out some of the Owatrol Coatings products and they easily lived up to what I expected. The products I used were oil products, some even had some light coloring in them and I had some choices of both indoor and outdoor products. The Owatrol Company is based in France and has been in business for many years and during that time have developed a very impressive line up of products, and broadened their distribution to most of Europe, the United Kingdom, into the Scandinavian Countries etc, and are now bringing their products to North America.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/UbcIaKTrGSQI was introduced to Oil Finishing products quite a number a few years ago, and have been using them ever since, so I did have some idea of what I would be getting into, but still wanted to see how they performed. The first product I tried was something called Teak Olje (pronounced Teak Olyeah) which is an indoor product, primarily at Teak Oil with some special additives to allow the oil to soak into the wood better. Teak can be used on any wood, it doesn't have to be Teak Wood, and it will still provide a rich look and a long-lasting finish and is well suited for indoor furniture. A perfect match for something I have been working on ...
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Finding a way to coat the woodworking projects I make with some sort of finish, then find a place for all of them to dry has been a perennial problem for me .. oh, and did I mention, preferably at least somewhat dust free!! My long time woodworking friend Len, told me about these drying racks he had been using quite some time ago, and for some reason the went out of my brain, then a couple of weeks ago he showed me a sample of what they look like and explained how versatile they were ... I instantly knew I had to make these, I don`t know who invented them by they are a great idea. I made some minor changes to my version, to make them a bit more user friendly, but the basic design remains.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/qQ6t_ZZJKFA
I thought about how many pieces there are to some of my last projects and decided that 10 or 12 pairs of these should cover most things. As it turned out, I had some used 3/4 inch firm boards that I wasn`t sure what to do with ...