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Fine Furniture Finishing Newsletter, Issue 6
This issue's topics: Re-touching secrets.
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Before beginning with this Issue's topics,
I'd like to add a few words about washing your hands that I forgot
in the last newsletter (Issue Five).
Another very useful
product for removing dried or near-dried oil and alkyd paints
and varnishes from your hands, and especially more delicate
areas like your face or forearms is baby oil (light mineral
oil). The oil seems to lift or displace the paint without
exposing yourself to harsh paint thinner. As an added
bonus,it's probably nice for skin moisturizing.
************************************************************************** And a reader question, also related to Issue
Five:"Speaking of staying clean, how do you get small amounts
of paint from larger cans without making a real
mess?"
This is a very good
question with no easy answer (at least that I've discovered)!
For relatively small amounts, I usually dip a stir-stick into
the quart or gallon can, lift it out and quickly move it over
the container that I want it to go in to.
This works pretty
well when either the original container is pretty full, or I
only need an ounce or two of material. If you're really touchy
about keeping your cans perfectly clean of drips, you can even
put a scrap of foil across the rim to keep the lip free of
paint, which is not a bad idea if it is a can you expect to
repeatedly dip into (like a can of white or black, for
example).
For larger amounts to
be transferred, I dip a four ounce jar (that I have lots of
laying around) trying to avoid dipping so far as to get paint
on my fingers. It seems like a small plastic ladle would also
work, and old dried paint would probably chip or peel off
easily when it got too gunky.
When it's more
than a dipper's worth, I snap on one of the plastic spouts you
can pick up at the paint store. Not all of them seem to fit
all cans, however. And finally, if it's a product that I need
to dole out in small amounts on a regular basis, like glazing
formula, I use the plastic attachments from the paint store
that have the screw top lid and leave the whole thing in place
until the can is empty or I'm thinking that I won't be needing
that product again for awhile. Readers with other techniques
are invited, even encouraged to send them in...
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You're about to discover one of
the most useful secrets of professional furniture finishers
and refinishers. Something
that's so darned useful and easy that they hate to
admit to it.
What am I talking
about here? Magic markers! For all the little dings, dents,
and scratches that are inevitable with any piece of
furniturethat gets used, magic markers earn their name.
You know what I mean;
those places on the legs that got whacked by the vacuum
cleaner or gnawed by the puppy. Or on the top where somebody
tossed their keys. Especially when they show through with a
light, raw wood color, things can start to get a little shabby
looking.
Worse looking yet,
how about when there is a single defect in an otherwise
perfect finish? Markers to the rescue! Actually, I think Magic
Markers is a tradename, but it's used as a description for the
whole lot of them, like Band-Aid is for, -well, band-aids.
Anyhow, you probably
already have a black one laying around, and even the grocery
store usually has them in brown, which is the other most
useful color. But if you find yourself in an artist or craft
supply store, you can get them individually or in sets of a
wide range of colors. It's mostly the browns, the wood tones
that are useful. A collection of them in light golden-brown, a
reddish-brown, a medium brown and a dark brown (along with
black) will allow you to finagle in a
close-enough-to-disappear repair on most natural wood
finishes.
I also keep a set of
basic colors around. When added with the colors above, painted
finishes can also have their problems disguised. For repairs
that are lighter colored than your markers, wipe the scratch
with your finger immediately after you've applied the darker
marker. You can then re-apply a second "coat" if it's too
light. For repair colors that don't conveniently match any of
the markers you have on hand, try applying the marker that
comes closest, wiping some of it off with your finger, and
then dabbing in a second color that tints it in the right
direction. It takes longer to describe doing it than to figure
it out in real life. Besides, it usually only has to be close
to disappear; that's why the black marker is handier than you
might otherwise guess.
Some marker brands
come with a fine tip at one end and a broader shape at the
other, -these are especially handy. The only drawback to the
ease and beauty of this approach may be that you won't know
where to quit. Kind of like pulling out the Dustbuster for a
quick little pick up, -where do you stop?
I once paid a
housecall to a client who had asked me if I could stop by and
touch up a couple of dings in the bases of some columns that I
had marbled a few years earlier. When she saw howquickly and
easily they were fixed, she asked me if I might make a trip
into the dining room for the table legs, and, -oh, what about
the music room...?
This home could
properly be called a mansion, and it was filled with
furniture! I handed her my little clutch of markers and
mumbled something about being expected elsewhere...
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Brown shoe polish is also useful for repairing problems on
clear wood finishes. It can actually fill in scratches that
aren't too deep or wide. Separately, brown and/or black shoe
polish (this is the colored wax in tins that we're talking
about here) can be used on wood instead of clear wax when you
are looking for a slight "antique" effect. This is most useful
if your piece has small details or carvings or hardware to
catch the wax and hold some of it as you buff off the
excess.
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Hey, the last of the best time of the year
for garage and yard sales is fast upon us, you may
want to stock up on some small pieces for the holidays. Although
you can find good used stuff year 'round, the pickin's is
slimmer.
Even though it's
ridiculously early to be thinking about the holidays, I think
small sized projects make great gifts, and I thought that I
would devote the next newsletter or two to some quick and easy
ideas. You might want to review Issue Four for some hints:
Newsletter Issue 4
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Please forward
this newsletter to interested friends.
Best wishes,
David Sorg
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