Step 12 - Finishing
All thumbnail pictures can be enlarged by clicking them.
 When all the construction is completed and the finish sanding is done the bench gets moved onto a roller cart and moved into the finishing room. I am blessed to have enough space in our new workshop to have a dedictated finishing room, with doors on it to keep airborn sawdust out. This is espcially important when I'm working with polyurethane as a finish because it takes 8 hours for the poly to 'dry' where lacquer takes about 30 minutes to an hour. That means Poly offers many more hours where dust can settle onto the surface and ruin the finish.
 The polyurethane I like to use is a heavy duty version made with tung oil that is wiped on, allowed to set a while, and the excess wiped off. It doesn't yellow with age as badly or look as "plastic" as some cheaper polyurethanes. So it is worth the extra money it costs.
We chose polyurethane over our usual finish of lacquer because of the fact that this bench is going into Bill and Carolyn's foyer and will be a place to sit while removing shoes and to hang coats. Sometimes these shoes and coats will be wet, therefore the finish needs to be able to withstand some moisture. Lacquer does not excel in this respect, polyurethane does.
 After the first coat is on, the black walnut takes on it's characheristic chocolate color and the the varying wood tones we've seen in the raw lumber homogenize into an even tone. Walnut has a special property that few other woods do; it develops a depth or translucence when given an oil based finish. This is most pronounced if sanded to about 400 grit and finished in a gloss finish. Less glossy finishes use flatteners to increase light scattering, thus reduce the glossiness and these flatting agents also block some of this translucense. But even under a semi-gloss finish like we used on this piece you can appreciate the rich glow of black walnut.
We will apply at least two coats of finish, scuff sanding in between coats to smooth the finish and improve adhesion. When the final coat is thoroughly dry we reassemble the bench.
| 
