Sawdust on the Floor

Like most people wanting to learn a new skill I turned to the experts in the field for advice. In my case that was my late father in law, who was a professional cabinet maker for many years. When I talked to him about how to refinish an old dresser that had been painted over many times, his advice was to strip off the paint and refinish it with a good oil based stain and top coat it with polyurethane. This was very good advice, and the dresser turned out very well. It turned out that the dresser was made from a beautiful maple and has become a favorite piece of furniture in our house.

His method for applying the top coat was to brush on the poly, let it try completely and then sand it with steel wool. With each successive coat, using a finer steel wool. This method still works today, if and only if you are not using a water based polyurethane. Today a lot of finishers have turned to water based finishing products instead of the traditional oil based products. These water based products have several advantages, reduced odor, lower VOC and ease of clean up.

When you use a water based product and you use steel wool as a sanding medium, you have to be sure that you get every last piece of the steel wool off of your project before you apply the next coat. If you don’t, you will find a very unpleasant surprise when the finish coat dries, little RUST spots in your finish coat. Remember, this is a water based product and water and steel can result in rust.

If you are planning on using a water based top coat, I would recommend that you use either wet/dry sand paper, or a synthetic sanding medium. Most DIY stores carry several different grits of sanding sponges, which will work well with the water based products, which will not react to the water in the polyurethane.

If you’re like me and still prefer to use the oil based products, then the lesson I learned a long time ago still applies. Apply a quality oil based stain, let it dry completely, then apply several coats of top coat. Sand between coats with steel wool to remove any defects. The result will be a smooth finish that you can be proud of.