Woodworking Magazine Blog

It's curious that many of the people I know who are professional finishers and refinishers are also connoisseurs of drink. Whenever I spray finish – particularly lacquer – I always get an unusual craving for a beer. Perhaps it's simply the act of replacing one toxin for another. Or perhaps it is the drink of victory.

Either way, I spent a few hours this weekend completing my work on the Creole Table and drank a fine porter with my dinner to celebrate.

To get to the finish line (sorry for that) with this project, here is what had to be done:

First, I needed to clean up some serious and troublesome tear-out on the top. While the walnut I used on the table's base was quite mild and easy to work, the boards for the tabletop made me wish for a wide-belt sander. No matter what I did (high-angle plane, scraper, sandpaper) a couple areas of the tabletop refused to behave. One of the back corners in particular remained quite scaly, even after a serious work-over.

I tried scraping it one way. Then the other. Then the sandpaper. Then shellac (to stiffen the fibers) and some more scraping. Then the pirate-esque cursing, which of course didn't help anything. When I got the table surfaces looking as good as I could after an hour of work, I applied a coat of amber shellac to warm things up. Even though this walnut is air-dried and unsteamed,  I think that walnut can look a bit cool in cast with just a clear finish.

So on Saturday I applied some shellac and today I applied two coats of M.L. Campbell's Magnalac lacquer. I love this stuff. No matter what the humidity or my mood, the Magnalac is as forgiving of my every inadequacy as my spouse.

Is the day too humid? The stuff lays out flat. Bone-dry day? Same results. Is the coat too thin? It still works fine. In 10 years of working with the stuff, it has blushed on me only once. I've sprayed it with a variety of high- and low-pressure equipment and have always been impressed with Magnalac's versatility.

And boy is it fast. I sprayed the first coat at 10 a.m. this morning. Then I sprayed the second coat at 10:30 a.m. I took a quick shower and put a third coat on the tabletop (for grins) at 11:15 a.m. And now it looks perfect. I know that the purists out there really like the shellac and other hand-applied finishes. But I like to spray modern lacquer. Always have; always will.

But as I raised a glass this evening to cleanse one toxin with another, a dark thought passed briefly through my head: Now that the Creole Table is built and finished, it's time for the real work to begin. I have to write it up, prepare the drawings and get the sucker published.

— Christopher Schwarz