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Which finishing on my dining table ?
(jlai.lu)
Hello everybody,
My dining table made of recycled wood need a refreshing. After planing, what finishes would you recommend? I'd like it to be easy to clean and have a matte finish.
Thanks !
Neat bug holes. If I were you I'd get it back down to bare wood and then squirt some wood glue into the holes. Then take a putty knife or credit card and scrape/ smoosh the glue down into all the holes until it's pretty well flush. Then take some old sandpaper ( you can use a new disc/sheet but it will be gummed up after this) and start sanding with the grain. If you're using a power sander do not use dust collection. After a little sanding the holes will disappear as the sawdust and wood glue create a stainable, color matched patch. Let it sit for at least an hour but preferably overnight before finishing.
As to finishing, I pretty well use Danish oil on just about everything when I'm looking for a matte finish. 1-2 coats will leave it still feeling like wood. 3+ coats you start getting the plasticky feel as the layers build up and form a shell.
Good luck and have fun!
Thank you very much, I'll try this ! Do I need to do something between oil coats ?
With Danish oil you saturate the wood (I use a rag) and let it set for 5 min and then wipe away excess with a dry rag. I usually only do two coats because I like the wood to feel like wood. And if I'm only doing two coats I will generally only wait 5 - 10 min for the first coat to dry before saturating the wood for the second coat.
If you're going for that more plasticky finish then I would wait for at least an hour of drying between coats. Then right before you apply the last coat of Danish oil you can hit it (very lightly) with some 180+ grit sandpaper on a random orbit sander. Then just make sure to wipe your sanding dust off before saturating the wood with the final coat. This will give you a Supa-Smooth finish that will have everyone at the table rubbing it like weirdos.
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