Thread: How to finish a piece of timber perfectly?

Are you sure this is treated pine i.e. saturated with poison? Sounds like a pretty inappropriate material for an exercise based on creating fine dust.

Wait. I'm confused here.

In the op you said stain and wax. I don't consider wax an actual finish but go figure. The later mention lacquer while mentioning your sanding schedule.

First if your going to stain then you're going to have trouble if you sand past 180 grit or 220 tops.

If your going with a clear lacquer then you can sand to 320. Anything higher than that and your going to have adhesion issues.

Even with an oil finish ill only take the bare wood to 320 then sand in the oil with successively finer grits.

Back to clear top coats. Sand 320/400 between second and third coats and before final coat if you're going with more coats. Let ut cure then you can sand with the crazy fine grits for polishing the finish. You don't want to polish the wood but the FINISH.

Gidday

Mucking around with sandpaper grades n the like can be a real drag! An epiphany usually happens when inexperienced woodies start mucking around with well tuned hand scrapers n handplanes......................

Ive yet to pull of a spot on finish with a handplane BUT can assure you that a Handscaped finish is hard to beat!!....................

Try a handscaper its well worth the effort.........................n will open new dimensions to your finishing!!!

Regards Lou

Originally Posted by ghostlysheet

The timber i am using is treated pine (a common, cheap construction material) its finishing quality will never be excellent.

I'd say the perfect finish for treated pine is Decking Paint.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

I'd say the perfect finish for treated pine is Decking Paint.

...Heh, heh! 'bout right.
As to 'finishes' This is completely subjective. Some of the best timber finishes I've seen are those that require the least amount of work and I just recently completed some Japanese style Spotted Gum doors that I brushed Penetrol on, then wiping off almost immediately, lightly sanding it once dried and then applied one coat of Sikkens TS Interior Transparent satin. That to me was a great finish because it was very effective AND simple and I've done some very 'fine' finishes with shellac etc. The finish is dependant on the required result.

I cant believe they're supplying TREATED pine. Madness.
My tip is to submerse/soak it in wood hardener and let dry before sanding past 320p.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

I'd say the perfect finish for treated pine is Decking Paint.

There is treated pine and treated pine. I needed some book shelves to span two metres and hold a lot of books and not bend. It turns out that you can buy clear treated pine bearers and joists and I bought some 50 x 200. They were rough headed finished, is that the term? they had those fine grooves in them all round. I machined them in the thicknesser, put some poly on them and they look fantastic, just like furniture grade timber. I would defy anyone to pick them as structural pine they just look so good. There are many surprised comments from those who think they know timber when I tell them what they are. BTW I am still walking around and that was about ten years ago.

Agree with what the others have said about the treated pine - the dust is dangerous stuff. Since you've done the worst of it, I'd give it a coat of thinned blonde shellac as a sanding sealer, give it a light sand after it's completely dry, stain it, wipe on another coat of shellac or give it a few coats of oil, then wax.