chuck in ny
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 528
- Reaction score
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there is magic in the things that dry and set up, for a woodworker it's glue and finish, and construction in general you have concrete and mortar, tar and adhesives. for the potential of great joy or great misery we have glue and finish.
normal production woodworkers, luthiers here won't consume large amounts of material, will stay with the same finish decade after decade out of being conservative and the fear of getting a bad batch of something they aren't used to either using or sourcing. some always buy price which is stupid in its way but works out because the products perform. cheap coatings always cost more per foot applied but don't tell that to a tightwad.
friends have had jobs fail on them and had to refinish acid catalyzed conversion varnish woodwork on the site and eat the loss. i like to stay with the good suppliers in the area whose stock moves quickly and sell quality name brands figuring halfway they are getting any potential bad feedback from their larger-than-me volume shops and there is an extra margin of safety built into the supply chain before a can finds my hands.
i can see you shellac guys sleep better at night. you mostly don't shellac a set of commercial cabinets and it leaves me staying with spray process for instruments otherwise i could be tempted to change process.
i made friends with the chemists at seagrave last century (! we are getting older) and spent the time with my jaw on the floor. they are reminiscent of japanese engineers, always pushing and going forward. with coatings you may get grooved in the process, no small feat, but you don't know much, and then with the sands shifting as these guys tweak chemistry and nature itself you can't possibly be up to speed on the properties of the products made by a dozen or two coatings outfits. things could be changing before you use up your pail of nitro.
it makes a good reason to be conservative and e.g. continue to use nitro. it's a one part finish. setting up to simply try some two part finishes can cost $500 or $1000 just to see how things go. even with the less expensive routes it is still time and money and potential gremlins.
seeming fear of the unknown is usually a good dose of common sense. there's good reason to stay with what you are used to doing.
normal production woodworkers, luthiers here won't consume large amounts of material, will stay with the same finish decade after decade out of being conservative and the fear of getting a bad batch of something they aren't used to either using or sourcing. some always buy price which is stupid in its way but works out because the products perform. cheap coatings always cost more per foot applied but don't tell that to a tightwad.
friends have had jobs fail on them and had to refinish acid catalyzed conversion varnish woodwork on the site and eat the loss. i like to stay with the good suppliers in the area whose stock moves quickly and sell quality name brands figuring halfway they are getting any potential bad feedback from their larger-than-me volume shops and there is an extra margin of safety built into the supply chain before a can finds my hands.
i can see you shellac guys sleep better at night. you mostly don't shellac a set of commercial cabinets and it leaves me staying with spray process for instruments otherwise i could be tempted to change process.
i made friends with the chemists at seagrave last century (! we are getting older) and spent the time with my jaw on the floor. they are reminiscent of japanese engineers, always pushing and going forward. with coatings you may get grooved in the process, no small feat, but you don't know much, and then with the sands shifting as these guys tweak chemistry and nature itself you can't possibly be up to speed on the properties of the products made by a dozen or two coatings outfits. things could be changing before you use up your pail of nitro.
it makes a good reason to be conservative and e.g. continue to use nitro. it's a one part finish. setting up to simply try some two part finishes can cost $500 or $1000 just to see how things go. even with the less expensive routes it is still time and money and potential gremlins.
seeming fear of the unknown is usually a good dose of common sense. there's good reason to stay with what you are used to doing.