Does Birch Wood Stain Well?
Have you ever used a piece of birch wood (solid wood) in a woodworking project? Or are you more familiar with birch plywood, whether all birch or with a birch top veneer? If you have used solid wood in a …
Finishing
What To Do If Your Final Coat Of Polyurethane Feels Rough
The finishing part of a woodworking project has many options, with staining and painting being the most obvious. It’s the choice of topcoat that has many more options, and one of the most common today is polyurethane. You’ve likely worked …
How Long Does Spar Urethane Last Outside? Durability & Protection Tips
Spar Urethane offers a formidable shield, safeguarding wood from moisture, sunlight, and fluctuating temperatures. Known for its robust composition, this wood finish combines resins and oils, fortified with UV blockers, to extend the life of your outdoor furniture and decks. …
How To Neutralize Red Tones In Wood
Red is a primary color that attracts attention and is associated with strong emotions. It can symbolize both positive and negative emotions, such as love, passion, anger, and fear. Red is also associated with danger and warning and is used …
How To Apply Varnish Without Brush Marks
If only everything we use in finishing a project were self-leveling, like the concrete or goop, we use to provide an undercoat in bathroom flooring, for instance. Wouldn’t that be great? Everything self-leveling? Sadly, that is not the case. Brush …
How To Use Mineral Spirits On Wood
We’ve mentioned mineral spirits many times in articles here, but we’ve not discussed in any detail how to use them, what they can do, or why to use them. We thought we should correct this omission and talk a bit …
Does Tung Oil Waterproof Wood?
We like using an oil finish on our woodworking projects at Obsessed Woodworking. We’ve written about a number of oils used in finishing wood, including boiled linseed oil, Danish oil, and teak oil. Today we want to drill down a …
Does Cedar Stain Well?
We recently wrote an article about painting cedar wood white. While we wonder why anyone would want to since cedar is a beautiful wood on its own, we had been asked, and so we answered. Everyone walks their own woodworking …
Can Cedar Be Painted White?
The white picket fence was always a part of the American home ownership dream. It wasn’t meant to keep pesky animals out, animals that might feast on your flowers or lawn; it was meant to put a finishing touch on …
Can You Stain Wood Without Sanding?
A lawyer friend of mine once told me most of his clients had as their first question, “Can I be sued?” He always answered yes, but told them the more important question was whether they could be sued successfully. That …
Does Poplar Stain Well?
A while back, we wrote a piece about poplar wood and asked whether poplar is stronger than pine. We will not repeat our answer here, but we did provide some helpful information about poplar in the woodworking shop. That piece …
Can You Use Oil Based Polyurethane Over Water Based Stain
Ever wondered if you can mix oil-based polyurethane with water-based stain? You’re in the right place! I am going to dive into the nitty-gritty of combining these two finishes. Why does this matter? Because getting it right can transform your …
Can You Stain Over Shellac?
When we began our woodworking hobby, we assumed there was a generally accepted order in which our project was to be finished. If the wood was to be stained, we stained, and then we added a topcoat, whether polyurethane, varnish, …
How Long Does Teak Oil Take To Dry?
Teak wood is a good choice for outdoor furniture, as you probably know. You might even have a piece or two of outdoor teak furniture yourself. It’s a durable wood, has a Janka rating of 1155, which ranks it harder …
What Does Vinegar Do To Wood?
When I was a coffee drinker, I remember using white vinegar to clean the coffee maker every couple of weeks. It worked well and was the only reason I bought it, as I do not consider it a good vinegar …
Does Pine Stain Well?
While we have moved away somewhat from default staining our woodworking projects, turning instead to wood oils or products like Rubio Monocoat, we still will occasionally use a wood stain as part of finishing the project. Stains come in a …
Does Burning Wood Seal It?
If you have ever visited Japan or watched videos of Japanese techniques in woodworking, chances are you have learned of the ancient ways of wood joinery and the building of houses without nails, screws, or other mechanical connecting elements. The …
Can You Stain Mango Wood?
We’re so lucky to have so many different kinds of woods available to us to work within our shop. Supply chains have recovered somewhat from the disarray caused by the COVID pandemic, and lumber yards and specialty wood shops both …