Thinning Wattyl stains

[Dengue]

I often burnish the oil based stain in with 320 grit paper

hi chipman - what exactly do you mean by this? I am new to this staining, apart from some pine furniture years ago. I assume that after each coat of stain, you rub it back with 320 paper? Is that right? How far do you take it back?

Would wet and dry with a bit of water be OK?

regards,

Jill

[Chipman]

Sorry I should have explained it little better. I use the oil base stain and the sanding as part of the application process, I wet sand the stain in until I get a thickish slurry of the oil based stain and the wood dust. Then it is wiped off across the grain with a rag and finally rubbed in a circular motion to finish it off. If needs be, I will do this several times. This is just the same as how you would apply an oil finish. It works well with lots of different woods but it is a bit messy!

I normally leave it a couple of days or even a week and then finish as normal with an oil based polyurethane (would not recommend a water base polyurethane over an oil based stain as you are very likely to have adhesion problems) I sometimes use lacquer instead (stylewood)

I find if I finish in this fashion it is seldom necessary to do too much de-nibbing which is handy for spray finishes. For a really mirror finish after the final coats, a very light sand with wet and dry 1200 grit with a little water and a few drops of detergent (as pointed out by Harry72), a light cut and polish and a good waxing really works well (similar to automotive finishing)

I am led to believe that polyurethane is a little harder wearing and less likely to be damaged by some solvents. The advantage of the lacquer is the faster drying times and the ability to finish in hours rather than days. Some disadvantages of lacquer include it is difficult to fill with it as each additional coat softens the one underneath and for porous grain, it will retake the shape of the grain underneath.

Most of us have slightly different ways of finishing. This is just something I have experimented with over the years and it works for me! (Only go to all this trouble for my really special projects)
Hope this helps,

Chipman

see this thread for pictures of a blanket box finished this way
https://www.woodworkforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=70939

[Dengue]

Many thanks for this valuable information, Chipman. I would never have thought of this - sounds very interesting, wiping the stain on with very fine sandpaper , then wiping off across the grain. I have never been game to spray finish with lacquer, as I don't have a suitable spraying vent, unfortunatley.

I notice the local furniture shop take timber furniture built in Toowoomba, and do a lacquer spray finish up here to meet the customers finish needs. They just use a 240V spray gun - looks like an airless power gun.

kind regards,
Jill

[Dengue]

in the 9th post above, by Harry72, can you please clarify that for satin PolyU finish, I need to do a sealing coat with 50/50 mix of PolyU and turps, and follow this with 2 coats of 90/10 polyturps, lightly sanding back between these last 2 coats?

regards,
Jill