Solve LACQUER Over-Spray and Orange-Peel

 General Finishes, Mohawk Finishing Materials, New Additions, Product Data Sheets, Wood Finishing Tricks  Comments Off on Solve LACQUER Over-Spray and Orange-Peel
Jul 132025
 

Getting the most from your Lacquer Finishes
When & Why To Use
Flash-Off™ Control Solvent & Lacquer Blush Retarder

Lacquer Retarder helps avoid Blushing  caused by Cold Humid Wet Weather
Lacquer retarder is used to help eliminate “blushing”, the white foggy look caused by HIGH humidity or rainy and cool/cold weather. This blush sometimes is only observed in areas where the build of the coating is thicker such as bull-nosed edges.
Blush retarder keeps the finish wet longer allowing the trapped moisture to escape the coating. Another advantage is an even flow of the lacquer.
To Eliminate
Orange Peel & Over-Spray,
Use Flash-Off Control Solvent
 – The Hot Weather Additive.
Generally,
Blush Retarder Is Overused.
In cases of orange peel or overspray,
Flash-Off™ Control Solvent is the best choice to solve the problem.Flash-Off™ Control is used to improve the flow of lacquers and lacquer sealers without slowing the overall drying time.
The addition of a few ounces of Flash-Off™ Solvent per gallon of lacquer will solve orange peel and overspray roughness.
Flash-Off™ Control Solvent will improve flow and yield overall film smoothness. 		 Flash-Off Control Solvent Use:
Add 3 to 5 ounces, Flash-OFF per gallon, to Mohawk air dry nitrocellulose, pre-catalyzed and post-catalyzed lacquer coatings. More Flash-Off™ may be added, up to10% by volume if needed, but that will increase dry time.
DO NOT add Flash Off Control to water base lacquers or conversion varnishes.
(NOT for use with Shellac)

About Lacquer Thinners:
Avoid Overuse of Lacquer Thinner
Most lacquers come ready to spray. This includes Pre & Post Catalyzed, Air Dry, Instrument & Piano lacquers. If the spray gun is set properly, add Lacquer Thinner only as absolutely necessary to achieve a proper spray pattern. Adding more thinner does not help the flow-out or drying time.
Control lacquer flow-out with Flash-Off Control Solvent. If blushing is the problem, use a small percentage of blush retarder.

Lacquer solids generally are somewhere between 20% – 25% solids and formulated to be, Air Quality VOC’s (volatile organic compounds / smog pre-cursers), compliant as labeled. Adding thinner will result in a non-compliant coating. Excess thinner or reducer results in a thinner coat of finish,
thus requiring additional coats to achieve the required appearance and enough thickness to provide a protective coating.

 

New !! MERIT HALF LENGTH Burn-In Sticks

 New Additions  Comments Off on New !! MERIT HALF LENGTH Burn-In Sticks
May 302025
 

Merit Logo  New Item
• Half Length BURN-IN STICKS
A traditional Shellac Burn-In (hot melt) Stick made from the finest shellacs and resins.
Ideal for use on older shellac finishes and for fine antique repairs.
Used for chip, dent, and hole repairs on wood, stone, & marble.
Accepts any type of topcoat, low heat will not lift or swell the repair.
(Made in the USA by Merit Industries) – – New Length  3 3/8 in x 1/2 x 3/8
• Only $3.69 ea. — Order Page – Click Below
https://www.shellac.net/MERIT-Burn-In-Sticks-Half-Length-Singles.html

For a listing of Full Length Sticks, sorted by COLOR CATEGORIES (Click Here)

Form Follows Function – as does a Wood Finish

 New Additions  Comments Off on Form Follows Function – as does a Wood Finish
Jul 152024
 

In the Art of Wood Finishing, it should certainly be true that
“Finish Follows Function”.
It is the finishers task to so assure that in fact,
Finish Follows Function.

Ron Ashby,  July 2024
————————————-
From Wikipedia:

The phrase “form follows function“ is attributed to:
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924)[1] was an American architect, and has been called a “father of skyscrapers”[2] and “father of modernism.”[3] He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. Along with Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson, Sullivan is one of “the recognized trinity of American architecture.” The phrase “form follows function” is attributed to him

For Sullivan this was distilled wisdom, an aesthetic credo,
the single “rule that shall permit of no exception.”

The full quote is:

“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling workhorse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change,
form does not change. The granite rocks, the ever-brooding hills, remain for ages;
the lightning lives, comes into shape, and dies, in a twinkling.

It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical,
of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart,
of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression,
that form ever follows function. This is the law.

 

 

NATURAL BRISTLE BRUSHES

 New Additions  Comments Off on NATURAL BRISTLE BRUSHES
Jan 302024
 

• NEW Item
SINGLE FILL NATURAL BRISTLE BRUSHES

Single Fill Natural Bristle Brushes
•  These are well crafted Single Thick Shellac,
Varnish, & multi-purpose brushes.
•  100% premium un-dyed natural hog bristle.
•  Epoxy set for solvent resistance.
•  Plated ferrule.  •  Smooth unfinished Beech wood handle.
 NOT Recommended for use with waterborne finishing materials.
      Made in the USA
Six sizes from 1″ to 4″ —  See Selection, Click here:

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