REFINISHING WOOD

There are basically three types of refinishing that you might do. You may want to completely refinish the
wood items, which will begin by stripping the wood down to the bare wood. While this does is to
prepare the wood so that you can put a new finish on it.

The second way of finishing wood is a partial refinishing. It stops short of stripping all the finish off of the
wood, the generally you will need to remove old varnish or shellac. Then, buff the surface, but leave the
old stain alone except for minor touch ups.

The third refinishing methods are when you try to blend a repaired or patch area to match the existing
finish.

Complete refinishing is normally the easiest, especially for the newcomer that has done very little
refinishing work. On complete refinishing call you need to do his stain, Barnes, or apply lacquer. You
don't have the task of matching what somebody else has done.

In partial refinishing you'll find that plans can go wrong. You may end up taking off the stain or create
patchy spots in it. If you are not careful you can also loosened glue joints. When doing a complete
refinishing job this isn't a problem because you'll have bare wood to work with.

You will find that the most difficult of the three kinds of refinishing work is spot refinishing. Here, he must
get an exact match and staining, and use the finishing materials that are either identical with these use
in the piece when it was first finish. If you use materials that were like the original there will be no
mismatch noticeable.

THE TOOLS YOU WILL NEED FOR REFINISHING

The refinishing tools, as well as good sandpaper, are very simple and you usually have these already. A
scraper for flat surfaces, that is were used for crevices and corners as well. Many people make the
mistake of using glass for scraping. The glass edges are never totally smooth unless the glass has been
smooth on a special emery belt machine.

If you use a steel scraper, I get a good one. This is one of the best investments that you can spend your
dollar on.

STRIPPING

If you use a big scraper with jagged edges this can make a lot of work for you. You can find very useful
and suitable scrapers by going to a variety store and selecting wood and kitchen utensils that would
include a pot scraper that has a smooth tapered edge. Normally these scrapers will last through three or
four refinishing jobs, and the most important is they won't scratch the surface the wood softened by paint
and varnish removers. When getting into corners, Constantine has a handy little tool they call a "grooves