Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Refinishing Wood

If I refinished a piece of wood with two coats of Oil poly can I, 2 weeks latter apply a 3rd coat? What would I need to do? How would I handle blemishes in the first 2 coats hair, pits etc?

Thanks

When you wait longer than 12-24 hrs to recoat poly it must be sanded - 220 grit should be fine. If there is something in the finish that won't sand out you may need to scrape it loose and resand.

jfrano,

If your previous finish didn't lay out smooth, there are a few things that need your attention.
When you apply coats of urethane(or any other finish for that matter) you must have a perfectly clean piece of wood. If you are refinishing a piece, you can bet that there is a certain amount of contamination in the old wood from waxes, sprays, dirty handy, well, you get the picture.
Just sanding or wiping off the wood will not get rid of the contamination, so when you apply a coat of finish you will see little circles start to form and the finish will not lay smoothly on the surface. These are areas that we call fisheye.
Even repeated sanding and additional coats of finish will not cover them unless you put a special additive in your finish.
Check with your local automotive paint supply for "fisheye eliminator". It is rather expensive but it will take care of the problem.
Before attempting additional coats, sand the finish with sandpaper no coarser than 220 grit. On flat areas, it is best to wrap your sandpaper around a block of wood (about 2'x3') to help sand the surface flat. When the area is good and smooth, wipe or blow off the excess dust and clean thoroughly with a clean rag moistened with mineral spirits. Before applying your finish add to it the fisheye eliminator (read the directions about how much!). You shouldn't have to add a lot, a little bit goes a long way. Stir to mix it completely.
Apply you coat of finish as thin as possible and take out any overlaps by making long strokes with your brush.
Always sand finishes between coats and I suggest you stay away from steel wool because it gets it's little fibers stuck in the fresh finish and corners.

I've used 'fish eye medicine' in automotive paints before but didn't realize it could be used with other paints [coatings]. The few times that I have had fish eye problems with varnish/poly, a good sanding and cleaning prior to another coat rectified the problem.

MARKSR
Unfortunately when refinishing furniture there is a lot of silicone contamination from old spray polishes etc. Just as with automotive paints, adding fisheye eliminator allows the finish to flow and doesn't affect the integrity of the finish.

Due to a lack of the availability of information on this product, most people aren't aware of the ease of use and the big difference it makes for a smooth, even finish.

CD

We have some beautiful old solid wood doors which are in pretty good shape. How ever, they have some scratches and dull spots which we would like to touch up to make the door more flawless and uniform. There are also a lot of nooks and crannies in the details.

We have no idea what the doors were originally finished with sometime over the past hundred years since they are so old. Is it absolutely required to strip them if all we want is some minor touch ups?.

In the end we don’t want them to be shiny at all, just clean looking like someone been taking good care of them.

We have some beautiful old solid wood doors which are in pretty good shape. How ever, they have some scratches and dull spots which we would like to touch up to make the door more flawless and uniform. There are also a lot of nooks and crannies in the details.

We have no idea what the doors were originally finished with sometime over the past hundred years since they are so old. Is it absolutely required to strip them if all we want is some minor touch ups?.

In the end we don’t want them to be shiny at all, just clean looking like someone been taking good care of them.

Are they interior or exterior doors? Dark color?

You will have sand with 220 grit, and apply two coats of the finish to the wood.
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these are exterior doors which are medium in color - sales man said the could be ceedar from Argentina but it sounded like a wild guess. Thanks guys for your interest