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About This Project
No matter how skillfully you install your trim work, it won’t look good unless it has a fine finish. Uneven color, dust-flecked surfaces and brush marks all distract the eye and ruin the natural beauty of the wood. Yet achieving a smooth, flawless finish doesn’t require expensive tools or special knowledge or skills.
Step 1: Sand
In this article, we’ll show you a simple three-day process that’ll give you great results every time. We’ll show you how and when to sand, using the correct sanding products. (It’s not the tedious, mindnumbing job you might think it is!) Then we’ll tell you how to apply stain evenly and without blotches on all the surfaces. Finally, we’ll show you the best ways to get a smooth satiny surface with a sanding sealer and varnish.
Step 2: Stain
We’ll limit our staining techniques to methods that work well on coarsegrained woods, such as oak, ash and walnut. Achieving an even, blotch-free finish on fine-grained woods like cherry, maple, birch, pine and fir is much more difficult and requires extra steps we won’t cover here.
Step 3: Seal
Wood finishing isn’t complicated, but it does require patience and attention to detail. It pays to get each step right the first time. Going back to correct mistakes is time consuming, and it’s nearly impossible to achieve blemish-free results.
Step 4: Varnish
Choosing stain and finish
We recommend finishing your wood with oil-based stain and varnish (alkyd) with a compatible sanding sealer beneath it. These finish types are the easiest to apply. Don’t confuse alkyd varnishes with polyurethane ones. Polyurethane finishes are tough and have their place, especially on high-wear, water-prone surfaces like tabletops and hardwood floors. But they’re less forgiving to use. Alkyd varnish, on the other hand, is easier to sand, which is an advantage if you have runs or drips or would like to apply a second topcoat.
You’ll likely have two sheen choices—gloss (shiny) and satin (flat)—but don’t be afraid to mix equal quantities of gloss and satin if semigloss is the look you’re after. Few home centers carry alkyd varnishes, so you’re better off shopping at a paint or woodworking supply store. Read the labels carefully: You’ll find that just about every can on the shelf will be a urethane-type finish.
A sanding sealer is the perfect foundation for the varnish topcoat. It’s formulated with more solids than conventional clear coats, making it very easy to sand.And varnish adheres better to a well-sanded, sealed surface. Pick a sealer that’s designed for the overlying varnish, preferably of the same brand. If you use a sanding sealer that’s incompatible with the varnish, the surface may crinkle or even flake off.
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