Finishing

[Jeanm45]

What's the best thing to use for finishing, on segmentation and portrait?


Best regards
Jean

[Jediscroller]

Jean,
This is largely a personal preference. While many will I'm sure offer advise, I can only speak for myself.
For hardwood fretwork I like Danish Oil with a topcoat of Deft Clear lacquer. For plywood (baltic birch) portraits and intarsia, I like just the Deft. These offer me the most economical and quick means for finishing my work as I don't have the time to wait for things to dry as I'm usually getting stuff ready at the last minute for fairs and such.

[lucky788scroller]

What Jedi said is pretty valuable info. On segmentation, experiment and dont be afraid to bend the rules a little by shading with various stains or color washes.For finishing, there really are no set rules, just have fun doing it, safely. Dale

[Neal Moore]

I prefer a satin or semi-gloss final finish on segmentation. It just doesn't look good with a high gloss.....makes the wood look like plastic to me. I've had good results using Minwax Polycrylic waterbased spray in clear semi gloss on segmentation. It levels nicely, dries fast and leaves a nice satin finish. You will still need a well ventilated area to use it. Although the odor doesn't linger as long as some other types of spray it's still there and is also highly flammable as are about all types of spray on finishes. Also as Dale mentioned, you can achieve some really great color and shading effects using smear mixing and dry brushing of your stains when coloring your segments. We have several good segmentation and intarsia artisans here on the forum so if you have further questions just ask away!!! Folks here are happy to help!!!