Platinum Walnut, Platinum Mahogany Finishes, and Bleaching Procedures
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | Decorating living rooms
Walnut, Mahogany, and other open pored woods that need filler can be given platinum or bleached finishes by the same process that is suggested for maple. The one important difference is that these woods need a paste filler that should be applied after the coating of bleaching lacquer has dried. This means that an ordinary natural or white filler coating is given between steps Nos. 6 and 7 in the procedure.
Instructions for a Bleached and Stained Walnut Finish
Porous woods for wood frames and wood corner blocks, such as walnut and mahogany, which need paste filler, are often bleached, and then stained with a rather weak, light toned water stain, to which about one fourth of the volume in denatured alcohol is added. For some effects a bleaching lacquer is applied over the stain and under the filler. For other finishes the filler is placed on the stained wood and bleaching lacquer is omitted.
Materials Needed for Bleached Walnut-Stained Finishes:
Bleaching materials:
- Simpson’s Two-Solution Bleach
- Sponge
- Sandpaper No. 2/0 and 4/0 preferably of the wet or dry type
- Bleaching lacquer sometimes wanted
- Water white denatured alcohol shellac or sanding sealer
- Natural or light paste filler
- White semi-gloss lacquer
- Rubbing oil and fine pumice stone
- Furniture polishing wax
For a gray-onyx-walnut finish for perhaps bar rail moulding or frieze boards, obtain a gray-onyx-walnut stain powder. For a sun-tan finish, secure a sun-tan, water soluble stain powder. Other light-toned water stains may be used for different tone effects.
Brushes for applying the bleach solutions and stain are also needed. The brushes used with the bleaches should be rubber bound and rubber gloves should be worn. The bleaching agents should not be placed in metal containers and are best stored in a cool, dark place.
Procedure for a Sun-Tan Bleached-Walnut Finish:
- Smooth with sharp tools, then sandpaper with No. 2/0 and finish always lengthwise of the grain with No. 4/0 sandpaper.
- Apply a heavy coat of No. 1 bleaching solution. After the bleach has dried thoroughly, sand the surfaces smooth with No. 4/0 sandpaper.
- Coat the surfaces freely with No. 2 bleaching solution, using a different rubber bound brush and wearing rubber gloves.
- After the bleaching solutions have dried, wash off the bleaches and, when dry again, sand the surfaces with a No. 4/0 sandpaper to remove the fuzz.
- Apply a coat of sun-tan walnut stain very evenly; rubbing it out just before it dries.
- (For a gray-onyx-walnut finish, substitute a gray-onyx stain for the sun-tan stain.)
- Spray a coat of bleaching lacquer over the dried stain. This step is often omitted, but it is a valuable protection if light sanding is needed over the stain. Bleaching lacquer will slightly bleach the stain if used.
- Fill with a light or slightly tinted paste wood filler.
- After the filler is thoroughly dry, apply a coat of white shellac. Sandpaper the shellac coating smooth after 12 to 24 hours. Sanding sealer may be substituted for shellac.
- Two coats of white semi-gloss lacquer should be sprayed over the shellac undercoats if a spray gun is available.
- Rub the lacquer with pumice stone and rubbing oil for a smooth finish, or smooth with No. 3/0 steel wool and oil.
- Polish the smoothed finish with furniture wax and much rubbing.
Procedure after Bleaching
Wood surfaces such as fireplace accessories, designer window toppers and wood frames, in general, should be sponged off with clean water in order to remove any chemicals that have not been neutralized and which might have objectionable reaction to the wood or to the finishes which are applied over the bleaches.
The surfaces of wood which have been bleached or wet with water should be allowed to dry out thoroughly, after which they need careful sanding with No. 2/0, and then with fine sandpaper (No. 4/0).
Platinum and other very light bleached finishes are improved and kept whiter by the use of a thin coat of bleaching lacquer, which should be placed over the smooth bleached wood.
Bleaching lacquer is a first-coat finishing material that should be applied to bare wood after bleaching. It is a lacquer that has had some rather weak bleaching agent added to it in order to produce a very pale finish. Bleaching lacquer whitens somewhat, and a lighter and paler finish is produced than by the use of thin, white shellac, which is sometimes substituted for it.
In fact, bleaching lacquer when applied to smooth, bare wood (bar rail moulding, fireplace designs, frieze boards, etc.) produces an almost invisible covering. Bleaching lacquer may also be used as a mixing lacquer with shellac. The bleaching lacquer or white shellac coating over the bare wood should be very thin when used over porous woods, or the pores or cells of the wood will be filled to such an extent that paste filler will not find proper anchorage.
The procedure for finishing bleached woods after the coat of bleaching lacquer is similar to that usually followed for lacquered finishes, and is as follows:
- Paste filler in light or natural for unstained finishes
- Sanding sealer or sometimes pale white shellac,
- Water white semi-gloss lacquer
- An oil rub, and sometimes
- A wax polished finish
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