Finishing maple with least color change, while still bringing out chatoyance in ripple figure?

[Bill Boehme]

The point about it taking a few days to fully harden... So do you wait until then until you do any sanding at all? Or do you sand between every couple of coats? I was sanding between every 2 coats of lacquer on the items I've lacquered so far, but, I wonder if that is problematic if the finish hasn't fully dried yet.

Yes, I generally don't sand until all the coats have been applied. An exception would be if there is a problem such as really bad orange peel, but I still would give the finish sufficient time to dry. How long is "long enough" depends on how heavy the coats are and the weather.

Unlike varnish that has gone past the no-sand recoat window, lacquer usually doesn't need to be sanded between coats. One of the problems with sanding lacquer too soon is "burning through" the finish (sanding through the finish to bare wood). Since I spray outdoors, the biggest problem for me is that gnats just love to land on a wet finish. When that happens I let the finish dry for a few hours and then use a paper towel to knock down the bugs and dust nibs.

I sometimes use crosslinking catalyzed lacquer. It is treated more like varnish when it comes to sanding.

 

[Jon Rista]

Well, I finished this one with the clear walnut oil, as I was unsure about my skill with lacquer. It did darken a bit...my benchmark is how things look when I clean with DNA, and the walnut oil darkened it a bit more than that, and it turned slightly more orange than what DNA causes. That said, it REALLY brought out the chatoyance! Its incredible!

For all my efforts, though, I really screwed up. The lighting in my workshop is apparently still insufficient, despite some new lights to try and resolve this problem. I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded...and thought I'd had all the scratches removed. When I took the platter off the lathe and brought it indoors, I immediately started seeing some notable scratching. The front side is better, mostly presentable, although it still does show some fine radial scratches that I really thought I'd eliminated. The bottom, however, shows two spots of fairly severe scratching. Honestly don't know how I missed it, but must have happened with the lower grits and just wasn't cleaned up by the subsequent grits... I don't know, and don't know how I missed it while it was on the lathe. In any case...

While the finish looks amazing where its not scratched, I don't know if I could re-mount this and successfully sand those areas out now that I've finished the piece. Guess its onto the next one, to try and do it right this time!

 

[Doug Freeman]

@Jon Rista you can wet sand using the walnut oil on or off the lathe. I would do some spot wet sanding in the scratched areas then remount and sand normally at low lathe and drill rpm. You want to wet sand as the walnut oil is not dry and will just clog the paper. Sanding with the oil keeps the grit cutting. Not a bad approach to use this method with the initial coat of oil.

 

[john lucas]

You need a small light. We call it a point source. Find a light that is small and concentrated and easily moveable. Then you have to move it around the piece to look for those scratches. A point light creates harder shadows that make scratches show. That being said I'm pretty sure sunlight causes scratches because like you I look real hard and sand carefully and then when I go outside I see some scratches.

 

[Jon Rista]

@Jon Rista you can wet sand using the walnut oil on or off the lathe. I would do some spot wet sanding in the scratched areas then remount and sand normally at low lathe and drill rpm. You want to wet sand as the walnut oil is not dry and will just clog the paper. Sanding with the oil keeps the grit cutting. Not a bad approach to use this method with the initial coat of oil.

Yeah, I poked around with doing that earlier. I've wet-sanded woods in the past, and ended up with slurry paste filling in grain holes, and I never liked that look. But, that was with darker and more porous woods, like Walnut. This is maple, which has much smaller pores, so it might work. I really need to sand the back cleaner, as there are some pretty deep scratches there that just seemed to slip by me somehow.

You need a small light. We call it a point source. Find a light that is small and concentrated and easily moveable. Then you have to move it around the piece to look for those scratches. A point light creates harder shadows that make scratches show. That being said I'm pretty sure sunlight causes scratches because like you I look real hard and sand carefully and then when I go outside I see some scratches.

HAHA! Yeah, I think sunlight MUST be an abrasive, because...yeah...lol

 

[Bill Boehme]

A very nice type of point-source light is a high-intensity tactical LED flashlight. They are insanely bright for their tiny size. I have several, but my favorite is the penlight size Coast HX5.

Yeah, I poked around with doing that earlier. I've wet-sanded woods in the past, and ended up with slurry paste filling in grain holes, and I never liked that look. But, that was with darker and more porous woods, like Walnut.

I also am not a fan of wet sanding with oil or wax.