9th March 2020
There was a dresser that Kelli desperately wanted to post on Marketplace, that required me finishing a black stained top. She obviously didn’t hear that I never wanted to do another black top.
She had sanded the top and stained it, leaving me just to apply a finish on it, which I did. When it dried it was all patchy with shiny and dull patches all over.
I decided to strip it back to the natural wood and start again. It is a horrible job, even though I had a face mask my snot was still black.
This time I went over it with a wood conditioner prior to the stain. This seals the porous parts and lets the stain soak in evenly.
I let it dry before brushing on a coat of finish.
This went okay, and I was anticipating a reasonable result.
I let the sealer dry, and on inspection I saw a hair stuck in the finish. I de-nibbed the surface, hoping to remove it but all i succeeded in doing was to sand through the stain. This made me angry, that I had messed it up.
My only solution was to spray over a toning coat using a can of coloured polyurethane I had bought for the dining table that I didn’t use.
I set up a make shift spray booth and went for it.
The first coat went well, an even surface with an even sheen, as I attempted to move it into the house to dry, I noticed the area that I had worn through was still visible, so I had to put it back into the booth and give it more coats.
At the end of the evening the top looked as good as I was capable of, so I set it aside to dry.
Wasn’t it black in the first place?
Kelli just smiled, so I guess it was.
Another Lifetime to go 