Cetol is great at resisting UV degradation, but I don't like the pumpkin-orange color. I prefer to stain bare wood (usually Philippine mahogany on Uniflites) with an oil-based stain, like Minwax. I used to use Behr, but I don't know if they make an oil-based stain any more. I generally use Natural color stain, or maybe Golden Oak on light-colored wood. The order is: sand with 180-grit until smooth, wipe down with acetone, then stain (tack off with a tack cloth right in front of the area you're staining), let dry, sand with 220-grit, then varnish using your choice of varnish thinned by about 25%, let dry, sand with 220, wipe down with acetone. For coats 2 and 3, varnish with 10% thinned, tacking off right ahead of you, and sanding and wiping down between coats. For coats 4 - 10, apply varnish full strength, scuff-sanding with 320-grit, with the usual acetone wipe down and tacking before application, etc. etc.
My personal preference for varnish is Epifanes Wood Finish (gloss or satin finish). Has the consistency of honey and builds up nicely. Also has a 72-hour open time between recoats (as opposed to 24-hour with Epifanes varnish). But preferences of varnish are guaranteed to start fights, so this is just my opinion. Once you've laid a good basis, upkeep depends on how much direct sunlight it gets, because the UV is what kills it. In the Northwest, a once-a-year light sanding and a couple of finish coats should be all that's required; but in South Florida, it could be a four-times-a-year job on exterior brightwork. I cannot too highly recommend that you pick up Rebecca Wittman's book, "Brightwork Companion," which contains all the woodworking information in her massive tome, "Brightwork." By all means, pick up "Brightwork" too, but it's more of a coffee-table picture book of beautiful woodwork, with accompanying text. The "Companion" is what you want to have by your side when you go to do the actual work. As low as $14.87 new on Amazon. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
