#1 Guide to Refinishing

January 9, 2021 5:09 PM

Looking for the absolute best guide to furniture/wood refinishing. I have some experience and some success but I'm looking for more in-depth than what your standard home handyman blog post can offer. Theory, practical steps, special tools, etc. Book form would be best, unless there is a consistently excellent web or magazine source. Thanks!
posted by hafehd to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

This blog post is far from comprehensive, but it includes some discussion of "finishes you can apply while naked" (natural non-toxic finishes, many of them old traditional ones) which are omitted from all the modern finishing how-tos I've read. So I guess I consider it the "missing chapter" that is necessary to make anything else complete.
posted by sibilatorix at 7:05 PM on January 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I got a lot out of Fine Woodworking’s The Complete Illustrated Guide to Finishing.

I also got a lot out of a digital subscription to Fine Woodworking, as it gave access to the complete archive, which included lots of articles and advice on finishing.
posted by notyou at 8:06 PM on January 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner
posted by flimflam at 10:47 PM on January 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I highly, highly recommend the Flexner book mentioned above. (Or pretty much anything he wrote.) But Understanding Wood Finishing (I have the 1999 version behind me right now) is the a great resource not only for early learning but for filling in detailed understanding.

How do you identify if a finish is lacquer, shellac, etc.? Why would you choose one finish over the another? How do you repair a dent in a table finish? Why does pine take finish differently than walnut and how to make one look more like the other? What kind of solvent do you need to thin short-oil varnish? When to use one brush type over another?

Etc.
posted by introp at 7:51 PM on January 10, 2021 [2 favorites]