After the building of the project has completed, the next step is finishing preparation. It has been said that after the building has completed, the craftsman is only 50% completed with the project, I am a firm believer in that age old saying, finishing takes that long.
First step the finishing preparation is completely sanding the project to 180 grit. After sanding to 180 has been completed, the entire case is then wiped down with distilled water. The distilled water step raises the grain, we need to perform this step since the case will be dyed with a water based dye. The raised grain is then smoothed with 220 grit sanding.
After the case has been sanded and grain raised, the next step is to treat and end grain with a stain blocker, I use 3/4 lb blond shellac as a stain blocker. The treated end grain is then smoothed with gray Scotch Bright pads. If the end grain is not treated, it will dye much too dark.
Last step in the process is mask off any areas that we don’t want to be dyed, with Scotch Blue Painters tape.
