Using Newspaper to Burnish

[Wes Terry]

I am about to complete a series of projects that will furnish my master bedroom (queen size bed w/head and foot board, dresser and mirror, night stand, armoire, quilt rack and console). Each piece has been finished with wipe-on poly rubbing out each interim coat with 0000 steel wool which makes for a very nice finish. Up until now, I have simply left the final coat alone allowing that as the final step.

I am About to apply the final coat to the last piece of the BR suit, I recently heard that a balled up page or two of newspaper rubbed over the last coat will "burnish" the top coat leaving a smoother surface than if simply left alone. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? I'm skeptical. How about any other advise on "burnishing" the top coat?

Wes Terry

[jeremy levine]

I heard of using paper bags ( good old brown ones ) I would probably not use newspaper because of the possibility of the ink rubbing off.

[Scott Mann]

I used brown bag paper to "rub out" the final coat on my last project and it worked great. My project was an end table and it made the surface smooth as glass.

[Howard Acheson]

I have never heard of using newspaper and would be conserned about the ink discoloring the surface. Ink is an oil/wax substance and could affect a newly finished surface. But using crumpled up, softened brown paper has been used for years.

But, let me caution you to try it first on some inconspicuous spot. You may not like how it looks. While smoothing, it somewhat reduces the gloss.

Another point, like any rubbing out process on oil based finishes, it will work much better if the finish has fully cured. With oil based finishes, full cure can take 3 - 4 weeks.

[Wes Terry]

Thanks about the tip on allowing the finish to "cure out".

Wes

[Prashun Patel]

I love steel wool, but I wouldn't use it for interim coats. Fibers can rust over time. A friend of mine has good success getting all the fibers by using a large speaker magnet prophylacticized with a paper towel. When I saw how many fibers that thing caught, it scared me away from steel wool for anything but the final or wax coat.

[Jamie Buxton]

When I use a wipe-on varnish, I "burnish" with a sheet of 1800 grit sanding cloth from Micro-Mesh. It makes a big difference. The abrasive is so fine that it doesn't change the sheen at all. However, it knocks down any little zits, so the finish feels smooth.

[Dave Trask]

after steel wooling
I used a plain brown paper bag on my last project and was quite surprised at the result,
I also placed my ros on top of a cotton tee shirt cloth and ran it over my project and it
left a super smooth surface.