Flip Top Finishing!

Stickley Aurora Finishing Schedule:

1. Sand to 120 grit
2. Vacuum clean
3. Dampen all surfaces with hot water, let dry completely
4. Sand to 180 grit
5. Vacuum clean
6. Flood with TransFast Aniline Dye (Antique Cherry Brown, 1 oz by weight powder to 3 quarts water)
7. Wipe dry, let dry completely

Aniline Dye going on

Aniline dye dries pink and chalky.  Don't freak out! 

 8. Flood with boiled linseed oil, let sit for 5 minutes, wipe dry, let cure for a day or two

Boiled Linseed Oil adds depth and luster.

 9. Shellac to lock those two layers in and protect them from what's coming next.

Shellac as a barrier coat.

 10. Rub on General Finishes Antique Walnut Gel Stain, let haze, scrub off so there's no smears.  Let dry completely.

Gel stain going on.

Gel stain applied and dried.

11. Apply a moderate coat of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Satin Oil & Polyurethane.  Apply with a cotton cloth with the grain.  Let dry completely.

12. Lightly scuff sand with 320 grit.

13. Poly coat #2.  Let dry completely.
14. Scuff sand 320 grit.
15. Poly coat #3.  Let dry completely.
16. Scuff sand 320 grit.
17. Light poly coat #4, make it perfect. Let dry completely.
18. Rub with grey nonwoven fiber pad to a dull, even sheen.
19. Apply paste wax, let haze, buff with clean cotton rag to a shine (pictured below).

Done!

100th Post! ...and still screwing up.

So Jason selected Stickley's Aurora Finish for his Flip-Top Table.  Perfect!  I already know how to do that one and I don't have to stop and run a dozen experiments to get a different color.  Awesome!

So I pull up my handy dandy Stickley Aurora Finishing Recipe & Schedule post to follow my step-by-step notes at the bottom, to the letter.

I mixed up the dye, per my own instructions, and applied it to all the parts today. I let it dry, then put a coat of boiled linseed oil on and went to my Mom's for a pasta dinner.  When I got home I opened my laptop and decided to check the aforementioned blog post to see what the next steps are and I decided to just read the post from the beginning to relive my thought process.

My eye catches on the "1 oz powder to 1 quart water."  I see that I thought this concentration was too dark and too red...   I read on and notice that I triple diluted the mix to get the right concentration to match the Aurora sample.  I scroll down to my step by step instructions and see that it says to mix 1oz powder to 1qt water, and realize that I mistyped my own instructions!

I realize I just applied an over-concentrated dye to every part in this project!  It didn't look that bad as I was applying it, but that's never a good indicator as it looks completely different when it dries.  It didn't look bad when I put the boiled linseed oil on.  But after I realized what I did, I could see that it is, in fact, too dark and too red.

My stomach fell down to my feet at the realization that I may have ruined months of work and hundreds of dollars of wood.

I rushed downstairs, grabbed the can of mineral spirits and a rag and frantically rubbed it over every part to dilute the boiled linseed oil.  After that flashed dry I took hot water and soaked each part and scrubbed.

It worked!  Holy crap it worked!  I was able to remove quite a bit of the reddish/purplish tone.

The only problem now is that each part got a different level of dilution, so I'm going to mix the formula correctly this time (1oz powder to 3qt water) and reapply.  I don't think applying more dye of a given concentration darkens it further.  If you want it darker you have to add more dye powder to the solution.  I'll confirm that on a test piece, just to be sure.

So that's my 100th post.  I almost ruined the finish on a beautiful table and saved my own ass at the last second.  Here's to 100 more!  :-P