Polish varnished wood. The subtleties of impeccable hand grinding

Wood, as one of the most popular materials for manufacturing furniture products, requires a special finish that will highlight it natural beauty, will extend the service life.

This process is called polishing. Of course he difficult to perform, takes a lot of time, and all actions must be carried out very carefully. Despite the difficulties, polishing wood allows you to create glossy surface, the main thing is to know the subtleties of the process.

What is polishing

As a result of polishing the wooden surface retains its natural color and acquires a mirror shine. To polish, you need to apply a special compound called polish to the wood several times. Unlike alcohol-based varnish, the polish contains three times less resins, which makes it possible to obtain a thinner and more transparent decorative coating.

The technology for creating beautiful textures requires high-quality surface preparation, in particular, grinding and removing lint and dust particles. Then the wood is treated with a primer emulsion, polished, and polished as a final step.

What types of rocks can be polished?

It is immediately worth noting that not all breeds are suitable for polishing. For example, loose wood is difficult to polish.

It is more effective to polish dense rocks:

  • Red tree;
  • birch;
  • boxwood;
  • nut;
  • pear;
  • hornbeam;
  • apple tree;
  • maple.

Beautiful texture After polishing, beech wood is obtained, although it is difficult to polish. Oak is characterized by its hardiness, so it is also difficult to polish. Pine is rarely polished due to the friability of the wood; it is mainly sanded and varnished.

Wood polishing compounds

There is a fairly extensive range of products on the market designed to treat wooden products. You can purchase the composition ready-made at any specialized retail outlet; if desired, it can be made at home using varnish or wax.

To prepare your own working mixture for polishing wood, you will need crushed shellac resin in an amount of 60 g and alcohol 0.5 l. The components are mixed in a glass container, closed tightly with a lid, and stirred periodically so that the shellac is completely dissolved. Then working fluid filter and pour into a clean container.

For finishing children's furniture, dishes it is more advisable to use drying oil or wax paste. It is prepared from wax, turpentine (solvent) in a 1:1 ratio. First, the main component is heated in a container in a water bath, and then a solvent is added to it. To achieve a uniform consistency, the mixture must be stirred constantly. A felt swab is suitable for working with wax. This safe look wood polish that doesn't highlight harmful substances and absolutely harmless.

If the house has varnished wooden furniture and needs to be refreshed, then you can use wood polish in an aerosol or liquid product. In this case, compositions with silicones give a good effect.

Note! Furniture wax for polishing is applied to wood without a varnish coating.

You can make a polish from olive oil(2 parts) and lemon juice (1 part or a little less). The products must be mixed and applied from a spray bottle to lacquered furniture or dipping a cloth into polish.

Polish is also prepared from turpentine and beeswax, taking them in equal quantities, heating in a water bath and mixing. The furniture is polished with even movements until it shines, paying attention to all the curves and nooks and crannies.

Stages of work

The wood polishing process consists of several stages. In order for the surface to look perfect after polishing, it must be first, then cover with a layer of soil and only then polish thoroughly.

Surface grinding

This procedure does not cause any particular difficulties, but it takes a lot of time to give the tree a perfect look.

The surface must be without chips, burrs, cracks and other defects. First, the wood is treated with sandpaper No. 46-60, then with abrasive material No. 80-100 and finally sanded with sandpaper No. 140-170.

Wood after sanding becomes clean, smooth, without protruding fibers and lint.

Padding

At this stage, the prepared wood is primed using shellac polish and a linen swab. Use cotton for these purposes, wool fabrics not recommended, they leave behind small fibers and lint, which are clearly visible on the polished product.

To apply the primer, put a small amount of polish on a swab and begin rubbing in different directions. With this approach, it is most effective to fill small cracks, pores, impregnation occurs better.

Note! First, make a smear on a test surface. The polish should dry quickly and not form bubbles. If there is a lot of it, then the excess is removed by wiping the test surface.

Primed product leave to dry for 2-3 days. After the varnish has dried well, it is necessary to sand the wood with a fine-grained abrasive material. The resulting dust is removed with a rag.

Polishing

After priming, the so-called polishing is performed. On a tampon made of linen fabric, apply a couple of drops vegetable oil (this makes it easier to glide) and pour a little liquid shellac polish. For work, you can further dilute the shellac-based composition (usually an 8% solution is used).

Place the tampon on the side and perform smooth circular movements. Polishing is carried out in three passes, where each layer must dry, sand with fine-grained sandpaper and be cleaned of dust. A slight gloss can only be seen after applying the third layer of the product.

Polishing

To polish wood, that is, to obtain an ideal shine, you should treat the surface of the wood with a fine-grained abrasive material (sandpaper) soaked in vegetable oil, when the third layer of polish is completely dry. After this, drip a little vegetable oil and polish onto the tampon.

The strength characteristics of a polished coating can be improved if you apply not just one, but several layers. At the end of sanding, it is recommended to treat the product soft cloth, soaked in a solution of polish and water. Excess oil can be removed wiping wood with ethyl alcohol. At the same time, the surface becomes smoother.

Considering that the quality of polishing is affected by compliance with all the subtleties of the process, do not reduce the number of layers applied and the time for drying. Otherwise, this will lead to a deterioration in the decorative qualities of the coating.

Polishing of varnished wood must be carried out in strict accordance with the technological process, only then can you obtain the most effective, sufficiently durable surface with a mirror shine. If you have no experience in this area, then it is recommended to first practice on small samples and then move on to more expensive products.

Wood products - bedside table, shelf, radio box, etc. look much more beautiful if they are finished. Wood painted with oil paint is just as rough and ugly as wood that is not finished at all.

You can, of course, cover wooden surface alcohol varnish (clear or colored), but it is much better to polish it.
Deciduous wood is best suited for polishing, especially hard wood: oak, beech, walnut, maple, birch. Oak is difficult to polish, but it has a beautiful pattern that can be further enhanced by tinting. Birch can be easily painted and polished to resemble walnut or mahogany.
Coniferous wood is resinous and less susceptible to finishing, but, as we will see, it can also be successfully polished.
The polishing process, commonly used in carpentry, although not difficult, requires a lot of labor, time and patience. At the same time, it can be significantly simplified and the results obtained are no worse.
The surface intended for polishing should not have flakes, gaps, fiber breaks, cracks, glue drips, etc. There should be no knots on it.
First of all, the surface of the product is carefully sanded, first with coarse sandpaper (No. 46-60), and as it is smoothed, with finer sandpaper (No. 80-100). Final sanding is done with very fine sandpaper (No. 140-170). The surface must be sanded by moving the sandpaper wrapped around a smooth wooden block along the grain.
As a result of this processing, you should get a smooth, uniform matte color surface. It needs to be slightly moistened warm water and immediately wipe with a dry cloth, and then dry for 1.5-2 hours at room temperature. This operation is needed to raise the pile - the smallest fibers of wood. The pile is then removed with sandpaper No. 120-140. Sometimes moisturizing, drying and removing lint has to be repeated even twice until the surface acquires an even matte sheen with a slight gloss.
This completes the carpentry work and you can begin painting the prepared surface with transparent dyes.
"For coloring in Brown color stain paint is dissolved in hot water. The concentration of the solution is taken depending on the desired shade. The paint is applied with a cotton swab, after which the product is dried at room temperature for two to three hours.
You can also use another dye: acid chrome brown - 15 g, acetic acid- 10 ml, aluminum alum - 55 g, water - 5 l.
A reddish-brown color will be obtained if you take 20 g of walnut stain, 2 g of Ruby dye and 1 liter of water.
For mahogany finish you need to dissolve 50 g copper sulfate in 1 liter of water and 100 g of yellow blood salt also in 1 liter of water. Mix the solutions.
The dried painted surface is rubbed along the fibers with a lump of horsehair or wood shavings, after which it becomes smooth and glossy.
Apply polish No. 13 or No. 14 to the painted surface using a conventional spray bottle used for spraying cologne. The polish should be applied evenly, avoiding the formation of drops and drips. At one time, you can apply five to six layers of polish, after which you should dry it for 6-8 hours at room temperature. Then the polish is applied again and dried again. This is repeated until the polish covers the surface in an even layer so that the pores of the wood are not visible.
If some areas are not sufficiently covered with polish, they can be sealed with thickened polish. It is obtained by evaporating ordinary polish in a small vessel (for example, a saucer) for 10-18 hours.
The product coated with varnish is dried for three to five days, after which its surface is cleaned with fine sandpaper.
Polishing is done with cloth rolled onto a wooden block and rubbed with GOI paste (instead of GOI you can also use paste for straightening razors or oil paint"chromium oxide"), and generously moistened sunflower oil. To prevent the cloth from gathering in folds, it should be outside pinned with buttons.
The polished surface gradually acquires a mirror shine. Sometimes you need small area wipe the surface with clean cotton wool and check the quality of the polishing. When polishing is finished, the entire surface must be wiped with clean cotton wool, then with a swab moistened with sunflower oil, and then again with clean cotton wool.
Although it is usually not recommended to polish resinous wood, it can be done as follows: the surface, cleaned with glass paper and painted with a stain solution, is covered with very liquid wood glue and allowed to dry thoroughly. Then, using a spray gun, five to six layers of shellac varnish are applied and polished as indicated above.

Wood polishing is a process that allows you to achieve a glossy or matte shine of wood while maintaining the pattern and texture of the material. Polishing wood with your own hands is not very difficult to do, but it requires care and time. Let's figure out how to polish wood at home, and what materials and tools will be needed for this.

Not all types of wood are suitable for polishing. So, conifers are not at all suitable for polishing (with the exception of cypress), as well as other large-layer varieties. But fine-grained varieties - mahogany, etc. - are suitable for polishing. In general, the harder the wood, the better it can be polished. You can also polish soft wood, but you won’t be able to achieve a completely glossy shine.
Polishing wood involves using fine abrasives to give the coating film the desired degree of shine.. First you need to decide what kind of shine you want to give to the wood - matte or glossy. The purchase of finishing composition and the use of abrasive materials will depend on this.

Polishing wood: choosing and applying polish

Without which it is impossible to polish wood, it is without a sufficiently thick coating film. The thin film can be wiped through during processing. Therefore, the first stage of preparation for polishing wood will be to apply several layers of varnish. Polishing varnish on wood should be carried out only after the varnish has completely dried and hardened - you cannot add shine to a soft, elastic varnish.
You also need to select suitable materials for polishing wood - abrasives. When abrasives rub against a varnished surface, small scratches remain that reflect light. Ultimately, it is the size of these scratch marks that determines the degree of gloss. The smaller the grains of abrasive, the more glossy the surface will be; the larger, the duller and more matte.
But not only the abrasive determines the degree of gloss of the coating. Thus, the finishing composition itself (wood polish) may contain silica particles, which reflect light in a special way and give the wood a matte shine. This material will no longer make the wood glossy. But when using a glossy composition, the gloss level can be reduced. Therefore, as already mentioned, decide in advance what you want the product to look like:
1) A glossy shine can be achieved by using nitro varnish or shellac to polish wood. Since these compositions are made with organic solvents, each subsequent layer will merge with the previous one. The result is one continuous layer of coating that is fairly easy to polish. Shellac for wood is easy to prepare at home: add 60 grams of crushed shellac resin to 0.5 liters of 90-95% ethyl alcohol in a ceramic or glass container. Then the vessel should be tightly closed with a lid, stirring the mixture from time to time until the shellac is completely dissolved. The mixture is then filtered.
2) For a semi-matte finish with a slight silky sheen, it is recommended to use water-based, penphthalic or polyurethane varnishes. Layers of such compositions do not merge into one, as in the previous case, but dry out as separate layers. Therefore, you need to be careful when sanding - if you overdo it, stains on the lower layers will be visible.
3) And for an absolutely matte shine, use oil-varnish compositions or oil varnishes.

Matte polishes are much better at hiding minor defects than shellac or nitro varnish used for a glossy sheen.
When polishing wood, it is advisable to sand it between coats of varnish. You can sand with stearate coated paper (for dry sanding), silicon carbide abrasive paper or waterproof silicon carbide paper (for water-based varnishes).
If you want to sand on wet, use paper without a stearate coating. To prevent the paper from becoming greasy during the grinding process, you need to use a lubricant: , kerosene, soapy water. Otherwise, coating particles may coalesce into lumps and leave marks on the coating. Lubricants act in different ways: for example, with oil the paper does not become greasy for a long time, but the work proceeds slowly; With soap, sanding progresses quickly, but it is possible to sand “down to holes.” Therefore, you need to sand very carefully.

Polishing wood: sanding polish

So, the wood polish has already been applied, it has completely dried, you can start actually polishing the wood. On a varnished surface it is recommended to use a swab made of nonwoven fabric(so that no lint remains) apply wax paste. Pastes are used on last stage wood polishing.


Using smooth movements, spread the paste over the surface - this will smooth out dust particles and correct small irregularities, streaks and bubbles. Particularly large defects can be removed with a blade; dried dust can be removed. In principle, instead of special wax, you can use soap or white spirit, but wax will cope with this task much better.
Wax pastes are rubbed over the surface using a tampon or a piece of felt cloth. In stores, wax pastes, thanks to which you can achieve a matte shine when polishing wood, have Orange color. In order to achieve a glossy shine, use white polishing pastes.
After applying the paste, the wood is directly polished. Polished wood will look beautiful if you use rollers from sheep wool, polishing machines or eccentric ones with a special polishing pad. At the very end of polishing the wood, apply a layer of paste and polish it thoroughly - this will protect the wood from wear.
As you have seen, polishing wood is a labor-intensive process, but in principle not difficult. In addition to accuracy, it requires careful selection of wood polish, abrasives and other materials for polishing wood.

Tatyana Kuzmenko, member of the editorial board, correspondent of the online publication "AtmWood. Wood-Industrial Bulletin"

One of the most complex species finishing works for wood products, is the process of polishing them. But this is necessary action, as a result of which the coating becomes transparent and very beautiful. After polishing, you can enjoy the pronounced texture of the wood, as well as its shades.

Polishing helps the wood maintain its natural appearance, and the surface gives a mirror-like shine. About twenty years ago this method was very actively used when polishing wooden interiors cars, various luxurious pieces of furniture made of wood. In this way, the beauty of the wood was emphasized without the use of varnish.

Wood is polished at home, only with the help of a special composition called polish. This solution has its own advantage over conventional alcohol-containing varnishes, and it lies in the fact that the polish contains approximately three times less resin. This allows you to make the decorative coating very thin and mirror-transparent.

Types of wood for polishing

The fact is that not every wood can be polished. Large-grained trees such as oak or pine are completely unsuitable for polishing. While wood from mahogany, apple, pear and maple, hornbeam and boxwood, birch is considered fine-grained and ideal for polishing.

Polishing and its compositions

Nowadays, there is a huge variety of polishing compounds on the shelves in construction supermarkets. But it won’t be difficult to make such a composition yourself. The most commonly used polish is shellac polish, which can be easily prepared at home.

To prepare it you will need crushed shellac resin, approximately 60 grams. The next ingredient in the future mixture will be alcohol. However, there is no particular difference between ethyl and wine alcohol. The main thing is not to forget that the alcohol strength should be at least 90, but not more than 95 degrees, in a volume of 500 milliliters.

The solution is prepared in a glass or ceramic container with a lid, into which you first need to pour the resin, and then carefully pour in the alcohol and close it tightly. It is imperative to stir the composition periodically until the shellac resin is completely dissolved in alcohol. When this happens over time, the resulting mixture must be passed through a filter, while pouring into another clean container.

Stages of polishing work

Sanding wood

The polishing process itself is carried out in three rather complex stages.

Stage No. 1

At the first stage, before polishing, it is necessary to prepare the surface:

  1. sand the wood;
  2. remove all dust and lint from it;

Stage No. 2

The second stage will be priming the prepared wood. It must be carried out using varnish and a swab made of wool thread or, in the absence of one, you can take a cotton one and wrap it in linen cloth. Why should you choose linen fabric? Because only this fabric does not leave small fibers. Cotton fabrics are absolutely unsuitable for this process, as they leave fluff, which is unacceptable during the polishing process. Remaining on the surface of the wood, they will noticeably damage appearance products.


Waxing wood

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Proper wood processing

Stage No. 3

The last step in polishing wood at home is polishing.


If you correctly follow the wood polishing technology described above, the final result of the work done will have an excellent appearance.

If the polishing layers are reduced or the workpiece is not completely dry, the polishing turns out to be of poor quality and cloudy.

If you have no experience in polishing, it is recommended that before starting work with the main product, you practice on something small and not very valuable. This needs to be done in order to practice a little, understand the subtleties and complexities of the entire polishing process and not spoil the main product.

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Video: How to polish furniture

When making wood products, the question often arises: “How to polish wood?” using polish to give protective coating. Most often, polishing is used for finishing furniture and handicrafts. The polished surface allows you to preserve the texture of the wood and gives the product a beautiful appearance.

Application of polishing for finishing

For finishing, several methods are used, for which substances are used:

  • varnish;
  • drying oil;
  • wax paste.

When finishing wood products, when varnish is used for polishing, a protective layer, which gives the surface a marketable appearance. The polishing process involves applying a special polish composition containing three times less resin than varnish. The coating formed on wood has a transparent structure and a glossy tint.

When choosing a finishing and polishing method, the type of wood must be taken into account. The most suitable types of wood for making furniture are:

  • mahogany;
  • birch;
  • pears;
  • boxwood;
  • maple;
  • apple trees

Also widely used, but quite labor-intensive in processing the rock:

  • oak;
  • pine trees

Products used for polishing wood

For polishing wood, commercial establishments offer a large list of various finishing substances:

  1. Shellac varnish – used for finishing furniture.
  2. Alkyd varnish – used to cover parquet.
  3. Acrylic varnish – used for processing wood products.
  4. Polyurethane varnish - used to protect wooden products from precipitation.
  5. Nitrovarnish - used for processing wooden products.

You can make a polish for polishing wood at home using certain substances:

  • shellac resin - 60 g;
  • ethyl alcohol 90* - 500 ml.

The manufacturing process is quite simple. IN glass containers the resin is poured in and filled with alcohol, mixed well, closed with a tight lid and infused until the resin is completely dissolved. Next, the composition is filtered and used for its intended purpose for polishing wooden products.

Polishing technology

The wood polishing process is carried out in several stages:

  1. surface grinding;
  2. applying primer;
  3. polishing;
  4. polishing.

Surface grinding

The sanding process is not particularly difficult, but it takes a lot of time to give the wood required type. The wood surface intended for finishing should not have burrs, chips, cracks or other irregularities. To do this, the tree is processed in 3 stages:

  • sandpaper No. 46-60;
  • sandpaper No. 80-100;
  • sandpaper No. 140-170,

until the surface becomes smooth and glossy.

Grinding is done wooden block, wrapped with sandpaper along the grain of the wood. After sanding, the surface is wiped with a dry, clean rag, moistened with water and wiped with a dry rag again. A pause is maintained until complete drying for 2 hours and processed with sandpaper No. 120-140 until complete removal remaining wood fibers. If necessary, the operation is repeated several times until the wood is given a glossy finish.

Application of primer

The priming process is carried out using a special swab by applying varnish to the wooden surface. The tampon must be made of linen fabric (does not leave fabric lint).

All work processes are performed in the following sequence:

  • the swab is impregnated with varnish and with its help the entire surface of the wood is treated until a uniform coating is formed;
  • a pause is maintained until the varnish is completely dry, sanded with fine-grained sandpaper and wiped with a clean dry rag;
  • apply an additional 2 layers of varnish;
  • a composition is prepared consisting of 1 part polish and 1 part varnish, which covers the entire surface;
  • The wood is dried for 2 days.

Polishing

The polishing process consists of applying polish to wood and is performed in the following sequence:

  • A small amount of vegetable oil is applied to the linen swab for better glide over the surface being treated;
  • Using a swab moistened with polish, carefully wipe the entire surface;
  • the processing operation is carried out 3 times with pauses after applying each layer until the polish dries completely;
  • the wood is treated with fine-grained sandpaper and wiped with a dry rag (after each time the polish is applied).

Polishing

In order to polish the wood to an ideal state, working operations are performed several times until the desired result is achieved.

The following work is carried out:

  • the wood is treated with fine-grained sandpaper dipped in vegetable oil;
  • A small amount of vegetable oil and polish is applied to the swab and the entire surface is treated (the operation is repeated several times).

When carrying out polishing operations, when varnish or polish is used, it is necessary to comply with all technological process to create a durable, smooth, glossy wood finish. If you have certain skills and appropriate substances, you can finish wooden products at home.