Re-finishing a rolling box

[Woody1]

Hi everyone.

I have some rolling boxes by Wolf Productions. They are made from red birch, and have a beautifully smooth and flawless finish. I buy these boxes, sand the finish off by hand, so that I can add designs to them using Pyrography. So far I have only been sanding one face and have been trying to refinish that face, matching it with the other faces, I have got the colour pretty darn close but the finish is all wrong. I have no experience doing this which is why I am here. I have been using Ronseal hardwood furniture stain, clear natural matt flavour, hand applied with a paint brush, thin layers, finely sanded between coats. The finish as you can imagine is just not that great, and certainly not flawless.

So please have a look at the attached images. Can anyone tell me what kind of finish the manufacturers are using and how it is applied, and whether I can replicate it. I realise I may have to sand all faces and finish complete. The last image shows the natural wood inside the box next to the finished wood outside of the box.

Thanks for looking in!

Woody1

 

[Woody1]

Ok, so after many attempts to find the right finish for these boxes I still don't know.

If anyone thinks they can match the finish I will send them a box and pay them to do so.

Anyone interested?

 

[Flynnwood]

Ask the manufacturer what they use and how it is applied?

If you are a customer they might oblige perhaps .... it must be worth a phone call.

 

[Woody1]

I have tried contacting Wolf Productions many many many times from all angles, the phone rings forever, emails are never answered and they are not based and never have been based at the address on the website.

Its very frustrating as I want to use their product, its a good product, but without knowing how to re finish it is no good to me.

 

[pip1954]

hi i would guess it is a spray finish you will never get as good a finish by hand, if you takea box to a morrels paint suppliers they would be able to match the finish it depends on the percentage of gloss,
i think spraying is the only way you will achieve the sort of finish you are looking for,
they may be able to put paint into an aerosol for you if you have'nt got any spray kit .
you can spray coat on coat when you do first coat you denib(fine sand) then spray again until you get the finish you are looking for.
any questions please get in touch
pip

 

[rafezetter]

It's quite possible that it's a UV hardened lacquer - ones that they apply by sprayer then on a conveyer through a UV tunnel which hardens it in only a few minutes, it's extremely durable and pretty much flawless as you say.

Flawless finish takes practice, and I'm by no means an expert, but I've been spray painting 1:32 scale cars for quite a few years and gotten pretty close without going as far as using a polish paste and a mop; it all depends on whether you're prepared to put as much time as it takes

I have done a method I read in Fine woodworking; their "basic skills and techniques special" on a chest of drawers whereby I used 25% dilute oil based varnish literally "sanded in" using 400 wet n dry, with the excess ragged off until touch dry, once dry 0000 wire wool, clean with mineral spirits, then applied again with the next grade sandpaper, but it took 4 coats to get a finish that glowed and you could see a reflection in the wood, and it was silky soft - I was extremely happy but a lot of effort - I'll only do that in special projects again.

TBH if you want a flawless finish spraying is the only way that makes time sense - I've tried doing it with a brush applied finish using both oil and water based on furniture and other bits, wet sanding between etc and it takes many many applications to get it uniformly flat even only doing one side left horizontal, just too much effort when spraying is much simpler - a few coats first to build up the thickness then wet sand to remove the orange peel effect (if there is one) GENTLY with 600, another coat then wet sand again with 1200.

Having said that I've not tried Nitro based or two part paints yet as they need airfed breathing gear I don't have (yet) but I've heard they too can be flawless with less effort and hard enough to be paste polished as well for ultra mirror effect.

Have a look at some of these from Fine WW http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/applying-a-finish/118062.aspx?channel=3&cp=0