Brushing the glaze in the wood finishing

Brushing glaze on the small table

The spray gun could be the most popular tool for application of finishing materials today, but the brush still play important role in the wood finishing. There are some finishing materials that are still need brush for its application. Glaze is a wiping stain that is also need to be brushed to get the best result. Glaze is designed to be applied between coat and it has to be smoothed by brush. In this posting we want to discuss about the application to build color and to make an even color. The glaze application to make antic and special effect is not discussed in this posting ( it can be viewed in our previous article: glaze to make antique looked )

The application to build color is mainly controlled by the brushing technique in the glaze application. If we can layer the glaze in even thickness and smooth then we can get the even and smooth coloration. Meanwhile, every unevenness in the glaze layer will be shown in the finishing resulted. The brush mark, sanding mark, uneven layer will resulted in the final finishing looked.  The glaze application should be correctly done to get the proper color.

Here are the things that must be considered in the application of glaze.

•  Surface preparation

Glaze should be applied over the surface with a smooth surface with even absorption strength. The surface that is rough, uneven or have a different porosity will absorb the glaze unevenly and resulted in uneven color. The rough surface will hold more glaze and make the dirty looked. Therefore the glaze should be layered on the sealer or wash coat with smooth surface. The glaze application directly to the raw wood is risk to get the dirty or blotchy color. The sealer or was coat has to be well sanded to prepare the smooth and even surface before the glaze application. Make sure the overall surface is smooth and even before glaze application.

•  Selection of brushes.

We need the proper brush to get the good result; the proper brush help to do brushing operation well. The brush needed for the application of glaze is the elastic, thick hair brush with even head tip. The paint brush or badger brush is the most suitable brush type for this purpose. Always check the brush before use it, make sure the brush is in the good condition. Don, t use the brush if the brush is stiff or has uneven head. Brush is simple and cheap tool, so it is better to buy the good brush instead of wasting time working with improper brush.

• The glaze preparation 

We need to use the proper glaze to get the desired result. The glaze color and the drying time is the most important thing to be considered. The glaze color has to be right to get the right coloration. Try the glaze in some panels to make sure the color is right. We better to make step panel to ensure the right process ( step panel for wood finishing).
The second thing is the drying time of the glaze. The drying time of the glaze should be adjusted according to the application in the product. The glaze has to be in the wet condition when it brushed. The too fast dry will interrupt the brushing glaze, but the glaze also cannot dry to long. The glaze has to be dry before followed with the next finishing process. Too long drying time glaze will slower the finishing process.

• The brushing technique

The brushing technique is the most important thing. Brush is simple tool and it is seem very easy to do brushing, but actually we need a lot of practicing to do it well. Brushing the glaze in small surface is quite easy, but to do in the wide and big surface it is quite difficult. Try to brush the glaze on some panels and see the result. We can adjust the drying time of the glaze by add glaze retarder to slower the drying of the glaze.

We better prepare two or more brushes to handle the glaze brushing, the first brush is used to apply the glaze to the surface, while the second brush is used to flatten the glaze on the surface to get the even and smooth color.

Dip the brush into the glaze, then brushed the glaze to wet the surface until the glaze layer the surface evenly. Then continue brushing to make even and smooth glaze layer. To smoother the glaze layer we need a dry brush. The wet brush will tend to leave the brush mark. Use the new (dry) brush to do the brushing to flatten the glaze layer. Keep the brush dry and clean, if the brush is getting wet or load too much material then use the new brush which is dry and clean to make the smooth and even glaze layer. For big product with wide surface we better do the glaze application with more people and prepare some new brushes to replace the wet brush. Every time a brush is get wet and loaded too much material then it should be replaced with the new one. We can assign a special person to clean the brush to support the brushing process. Stroke the brush according to the grain pattern, move the brush consistently, do the brushing until the even and smooth surface is obtained.  

Check the color and the effect of the glaze layer, make sure it is correct and dry before continue with the next finishing process. After an even and smooth surface with proper color is obtained then we need let the glaze to dry. We can do highlight or don't, depend on the finishing looked required. Apply one or two layer of clear coat on the glaze layer. The glaze always need to be protected with clear coat layer.