Read me, Seymore: “Understanding Wood Finishing”
A few weeks ago, my wife told me about this outstanding new service. It’s like Netflix, except:
* They let you have 10 items at a time instead of 3
* They have outlets in every city, so you can pick stuff up and drop it off in person
* If they don’t have the item you want, they’ll special order it for you
* They have a pretty lousy selection of DVDs, but their selection of books is outstanding
* It’s free!
So I went to check out this “Library”. It was incredible! Dozens of books on woodworking! I’ve been pounding through some mediocre ones, but I found a real gem I had to share. It’s called “Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish”, by Bob Flexner. It’s been out of print for a while, and copies were going for $30 and up, but it was recently reissued as a paperback.
It’s a tremendous book that covers all sorts of questions in very practical detail. For example, just what grit do you need to sand up to? Which finishes are comparable to which other ones? How can you identify a mystery finish? What exactly is a gel finish, and when should you use it? (hint: not for any of the reasons listed on the can). It even gives you detailed, step-by-step finishing instructions for different woods using different finishes, with pictures of the results of each!
The book’s only weakness is that it doesn’t provide a lot of helpful brand-name detail. Since it was originally written back in ’93, that’s probably a good thing, since it’d be obsolete by now anyway. But I’m still looking for a source that will tell me, for example, what’s in each “Tung oil finish” available and which one is superiour.
Go buy a copy of Understanding Wood Finishing (in the newly reissued, inexpensive paperback) right now. You’ll thank me for it.
(You might want to subscribe or follow me on Twitter so you don’t miss new articles)
