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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.
How to Finish Wood w/ Owatrol Products - Wood Finishing a Live Edge Table Top
I 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.
Wood Finishing and Drying Racks
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 ...
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For new woodworkers, and even some of the more seasoned ones, finishing their woodworking project can be agony. It certainly was for me for many, many years. It seemed no matter what can of varnish I purchased, the projects that I worked so hard to make them as perfect as I could, ended up looking like crap after the finishing was done. I always read the directions but never really had much success, in fact sometimes woodworking got very discouraging when I seemed to be able to predict that the end project would look like.
Then I met someone who began to give me some finishing tips and techniques. I started to realize that my impatience with the finishing step was part of my problem. I could make a furniture piece in a few days, then it would take a few more days just for the finishing. Waiting for anything to dry ... for me ... is pure agony, but as I started to see some real changes in my finished, I began to have much more patience.
Finishing Tips and Techniques
He taught me a number of steps that I still use today, steps that help me not only in the build, but also in finishing. Here are the steps that I learned
#1 - Think about what you want your project to look like when it is done and what will it be used for. Knowing what I want my project to look like was a big step for me. Often I would pick a species of wood at random and build something with it, then think about what I was going finish it with.
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Owners of rifles know that taking firearms back and forth to the target range and just general handling can be hard on guns, particularly wooden stocks. If the gun is old, it could have been finished with varnish, which over years can crackle and chip depending on conditions. In this article we will discuss the different aspects of refinishing a wooden rifle stock to restore the firearm to something close to it's original beauty.
Before you refinish or even handle any firearm, it is up to you to ensure you are working safely for yourself and for those around you.
The first thing to consider when refinishing a rifle stock is - should this rifle even be refinished? Some rifles can dramatically lose their value when the original finish is removed and replaced. If you are planning to go ahead with the refinishing, you will need to remove all the hardware from the rifle.
Once the hardware is removed, the first step is to remove the existing finish. This can be done with sandpaper, but is best started off with some sort of a remover if possible. A good paint and varnish remover should get the stock down to either the natural wood, or at least to a stained wood. At this point you will likely have removed most of the nasty marks on the stock with exception of those that are deep into the wood. The next step is ....