Waterlox and Doors

With the main work in this bedroom coming to a close, the focus is on the woodwork. All of the main shellac coats are done so next up is starting Waterlox as the final coats. For these, I’ll do two coats of standard finish and then a final coat of the matte finish. But before Waterlox, I do some more prep on the shellac finish. I go through all of the wood with synthetic steel wool to buff out any imperfections and also use my shellac pad to do a final smoothing over the shellac. For the pad, I have t-shirt material wrapping cotton and I store that in a mason jar with alcohol. Normally this is used for french polishing, but I also find it useful to smooth out any shellac issues. I dip the pad in alcohol and a little bit of shellac and wipe down the wood after scratching it up with steel wool.

Final buff out of shellac before Waterlox.

Buffing out the shellac.

I let the shellac dry for a few hours and then do a final wipe down and scrape of the ceiling and walls to remove any plaster imperfections. Also, any areas near the molding with gaps, I apply some acrylic caulk to close up those gaps. Next up will be painting the ceiling, but I want to let the ceiling cure for a few more weeks before painting. After scraping down the plaster, I apply the Waterlox to the woodwork. I use a rag for this and rub that over the shellac. I like the Waterlox because it is pretty forgiving when applying it.

Waterlox.

First coat of Waterlox and final plastering done.

Only 2 more coats of Waterlox to go!

Looking good.

Now back to the doors for the remainder of the work. The doors need more sanding to deal with imperfections. The main door needs sanding to clean up some substance that is preventing the stain from fully absorbing. Not sure if it is wood filler or epoxy, but I sand from 120 to 220 to get to the bare wood again and then re-stain.

Notice on the left the stain didn’t fully absorb due to maybe some epoxy or wood filler?

The closet door has already been stained, but I noticed too many scratch marks on the wood so I’m taking a second crack and trying to sand it down for a smoother look. This requires another pass from 120 to 220 grit sandpaper. I find that using the sandpaper without a sanding block gives better results of buffing out the scratches.

Re-sanding the door to remove scratch marks.

I apply the stain with a foam brush, let it sit for about 15 minutes, and then wipe off the excess using a paper towel.

Staining again after sanding.

Stain applied and sitting for 15 minutes.

After wiping off the stain, but the middle section needs another coat.

Letting the re-stained doors dry.

While the two doors dry, I do a coat of stain on the door hardware. Since these are already pretty smooth, I don’t do any sanding before applying this stain.

Before

Letting stain sit for 15 minutes before wiping off.

Staining the doorknob flange.

Last door-related work is trying to reassemble the rimlock. Of course when I start putting this together there is one piece I can’t figure out where it goes. I look at my previous pictures of the lock to see where this piece was used but of course the pictures don’t show where it’s being used. I’ll sit on this and come back next time to put that last piece in place to get the lock working again.

All pieces are accounted for except 1!