Post #199343 by Aaron's Akua on Mon, Nov 21, 2005 3:33 PM

Antique Staining & Finishing Step-By-Step

First I finished all of the sanding down to 60 grit. Unlike some of my previous tikis, this one did not want to be fine-sanded.

I dumped the idea of using tile for the eyes, and carved them out instead. The first mock-up for the staining didn’t turn out all that well, so I tried again and settled on my final stain combination. I was shooting for an aged, vintage sort of look. Benzart had given me some tips on one of his methods of using a dark stain then hitting the rough spots with sandpaper to age it up.

Here’s the final sample stain piece.

Step One: I started with a heavy coat of Ebony, so heavy it looked like I had dipped it in a big can of stain. I also used a plastic spray bottle to spray the stain into all of the cracks so the light wood would not show through.

Step Two: Once the stain had dried well, I sanded the whole thing back down with 60 grit. This is where I deviated a bit from how Ben did his finish on his big palm pieces. With Ficus wood, the contrast is a bit much between the light wood and dark stain. So instead of just roughing the high spots, I took it all down as much as I could for a second color coat. At this stage you can see every spot that you missed sanding. But with this approach, every missed spot is an asset, and helps with the antique look. The relief carving gets a torched look in all of the deep spots.

Step Three: A coat of "Provincial" for the torso, face, eyes, hair tie, and middle parts of the headpiece.

Step Four: A coat of "Red Mahogany" for the hair, mask, and uprights for the headpiece.

One minor setback was the "Liquid Rawhide Redwood" stain that I used for the pedestal. It turns out to be a tacky thick kind of stain that is meant to be used on fences and sets up without any wiping. I had tried it on a sample, but for some reason it came out all wrong on the piece – really orangey and thick. After I did the pedestal, I switched to the Red Mahogany for the headpiece.

The pedestal woyuld probably have looked okay, but after all of the work so far, I decided to do a little redo rather than settle. After all, this thing is going in my living room.

Sanded the base back down…

More Ebony stain…

More sanding, then a coat of Red Mahogany….

And what would have been Step Five Final lettering with the Provincial stain.

A while back, Ben gave me some advice on finishing, which I decided to take.

On 2005-06-26 07:05, Benzart wrote:
I use that Deft lacquer too and it is a great finish. If you want a nice sealer that is quick drying and easily sanded, try using plain old shellack. they make some that is pretty clear and you can build up 3 or four coats in an hour and have a beautiful finish with it in no time. After it dries thoroughly (couple hours), then go with a couple coats of the deft for a glass smoothe finish.

Step Six: Four coats of shellac, one every 15 minutes.

Step Seven: Waited one hour, then applied three coats of lacquer, one every 30 minutes.

Ben’s finishing combination worked out great. I am so stoked! My old method was to
Brush on Spar Varnish, wait 48 hours between coats, sand with 220 to get out all of the brush marks and drips, then repeat the whole thing again for four more coats. This method worked twice as well and took just one afternoon without any sanding between coats.

I was just browsing through this post and noticed how many peeps offered up tips. Thanks for all the tips, especially to you Ben.

Here’s the finished project if anyone wants a look-see.

Cheers,

A-A