…would be my recommendation for most people. The actual material that I am using is a General Finishes product. It is called Seal A Cell. Anybody who watches Woodworks has probably seen the stuff before. David Marks uses this which his on the show, almost exclusively. It is an oil-varnish blend, contains some lean seed oil. There is always mystery on what these things contain, and a lot of misinformation out there. But, this is pretty much the consensus, is that it make sure of lean seed oil and algoid resin and also urethane resins. So it is going to have an essentially, an oil-varnish blend. That is all you really need to know.
The first coat I applied using a little sponge brush like this, soak it over the surface, and let it sunk for about 30 or 40 seconds. Let it sunk in as much as it wants. The wood went it roll is really thirsty for stuff like this. So, keep applying in until you start to see a pool on the surface. And then after about a 30 or 40 seconds, a couple of wipes with the grain, with a clean paper towel, usually, I just use paper towels even now, I have got some lint in it. I am not really building up a shining surface here yet, so it is not a problem.
Wipe off the excess and let it settle overnight and that is where we are at today. You could start to see that it is starting to build up a little bit of a machine, but the surface is kind of rough. You know, the first coat really was just the sealer coat. So, we now, actually, start to build up a little bit more protection. And, I am really, probably going to go three coats on this one.
So, let me just jump right into adding the second coat for you. Now, before I got started, we could see that the surface is rather rough. At first coat, raises the grain a little bit. Even though the sand unto 180, we always get that little grain raising action from all the broken fibers that are setting on the surface. So, it is important to make sure this is nice and smooth before we apply our second coat. So, I am just going to use some basic 320 grit, this is in three acts, just happens to be what I had stuck up on. And I am going to use my bare hands here and just give it a few light strokes.
I am not really even looking for anything so much as feeling. I want to feel when the surface is smooth. I want to feel smooth, it is smooth and as I far as I need to go. Okay, so as long as that feels good. Okay, and toward the end. I tend to use a little bit of a sweeping technique. I do not like to go back and forth because you tend to focus on the corner a little too much. So when I get toward the end, I go across and I lift. That is the good way to make ensure that you get even sanding pressure all over that surface. There, we also want a lightly sand or chamfer here. I will do this on the entire piece, but I am only going to show you on the top because it is much easier. Nice bring square piece of wood, and obviously, this is going to take considerably more time on the table because all the tiny pieces.
Now, one thing I like to quickly, address is the concept of sealers. I got a lot of questions on the website about whether I should use a sealer, should I use a sanding sealer, maybe, a coat of shylock as a sealer. All these things are fine, there is nothing wrong with it, but in a lot of cases, it is not really necessary. You know, for a piece like this, we are going for a nice oil-varnish mixtures or finish. You do not necessarily need a sealer and I think there is a little bit of a miss normal in terms of the terminology here.
The first coat of any finish, really serves as t your sealer. So, you do not necessarily need to buy another product and seal your wood. The first coat of this material served as our sealer. If you are using shylock as your finisher, your first coat is shylock as your sealer, something with Lacquer. There are a lot of other products on the market that refer to themselves as sealer like sanding sealer. As sanding sealer is really just a deluded finish that has an added any of that that makes it easier to sand and less like with the clog of your sand paper. So you can use those products, there is actually some evidence out there that go sanding sealers because of the material that is been added to it that makes it easier to sand. That actually, can inhibit the absorption and the adhesion of your top coats. I mean, if that is even a possibility, I would rather not even mess with it. If I am going to use a sealer, I like to use shylock, D-waxed shylock as my sealer. Basically, it is like a universal binder for all types of finishes. But in these cases, I am not really seemed any reason to use a sealer or a separate sealer, let us say so. My first coat of this Seal A Cell was my sealer coat. So, now are actually going into what would be, I guess, considering the process as applying our top coats.
So, now that we are done with our sanding, we have got a little bit of dust on the surface to content with. What is the easiest thing to do? A little bit of compressed air is all it takes. Can you use tack clothes? Of course, you can. But there are some cases, where tack clothes, because of the resin that is on there, that stuff gets coat in the pores of that wood and sits on the surfacing. It can cause finishing problems later. So, in general, I would like to avoid it, but in certain cases, if I am doing a super duper high gloss lacquer finish, I might use them just because I am paranoid about dust. But in most case, 99% of cases, I do not worry about tack clothes, just some compressed air.
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