The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

Choice of First Coaters

THE different materials that can be used and are used for a first coating on wood surfaces, and especially for modern furniture, are numerous. They fall into two general classes, namely, for the transparent finishes and the opaque finishes. For the transparent finishes, in the order of their usefulness, are the following: Shellac varnish (white and orange), seal coat (first coat varnishes) of different formula3 but containing oil and japan, but with varying amounts of different gums, and many different lacquers (wood oil and pyroxlyn cotton).

OPAQUE COATERS

Opaque first coaters are not so numerous, but cover a wide range of paint materials. It is generally accepted that varnish materials are transparent, but paint materials are opaque, and for convenience we will regard them so. Flat white from lead, lithophone, zinc, etc., is used extensively and colored with pigments in oil or Japan. The best flat whites do not contain lead, as they turn yellow with age. They are usually termed enamel undercoating or paint primer.

Of course the first coater may be purchased in any color. Factories usually select a standard shade and have the paint factory duplicate it. In this way a special formula can be made for each factory, thus insuring it a shade or color that will be exclusive. Colored lacquers play an important part in the finishing department of a large factory and these consist of pigments ground in lacquer.

SHELLAC FIRST COAT

Tf a piece of furniture is to be finished in a shellac finish and waxed, it is plain that you should not use anything but a shellac varnish as a first coater. White shellac should be used on natural finishes of any light wood, from mahogany down to the clear maple. Orange shellac can be used on all dark finishes. This coater must be used over oil or water stain. Do not use it over spirit stain, as the stain will be absorbed into the shellac coat and smeared around, making a cloudy, streaked finish. This coating can be used over any paste filler, when thoroughly dry.

OIL VARNISH FIRST COAT

All the first coat oil varnishes, or seal coats, are applied the same as rubbing varnish, and the principal materials used in them are the same, namely, linseed or other oils, dryer and gums. On natural finishes a varnish with damar gum will be more transparent. Host oil varnishes give an amber cast to the finish. An oil varnish coater or sealer cannot be used with success over an oil stain without filler as the varnish will dissolve the stain and cause the varnish to dry very slowly and give a cloudy finish.