UPDATED: November 2025 You have probably noticed the trending popularity of the “natural wood look” or “raw wood finish,” where the final result is a beautiful piece of furniture that looks as if it is raw wood without a single coat of finish. The challenge is, even an ultra-clear coating or lacquer on light woods […]
5 Steps to Create a Natural Wood Look for Your Next Woodworking Project Read More »
Updated: October 2025 As a finisher with regular contact with potentially hazardous chemicals, I hope you question the wood finishing safety differences between water based coatings and their traditional solvent based counterparts, particularly concerning their performance and their impact on your health and the environment. In my earlier years, I underestimated the significance of these
Navigating Health and Safety When Wood Finishing: A Practical Guide Read More »
Whether you are a seasoned professional or a dedicated DIY finisher, achieving a flawless kitchen cabinet finish requires more than just the right spray equipment. Kitchen cabinetry—and other interior woodwork—faces daily exposure to heat, moisture, grease, and frequent cleaning. Choosing the right finishing system is critical to ensuring both beauty and durability. In the following
How to Achieve a Flawless Finish on Kitchen Cabinets Read More »
A Personal Note from Jeff Weiss Back in October 2024, you may have read about Target Coatings launching a new brand called Emcat+®. At the time, maybe your reaction was, “Hey, this stuff sounds cool, but what the heck are they talking about?” Well, not wanting to be accused of overselling my years of work
EMCAT+ Now Available to Everyone Read More »
UPDATED: June 2025 As we start to transition into late spring and summer, now is a good time to talk about the potential challenges of wood finishing in warm weather. As we have discussed in a previous article about wood finishing in cold temperatures, wood coatings can be sensitive to environmental conditions and therefore different
Wood Finishing in Warm Weather Read More »
UPDATED: May 2025 I’m guessing you’re no stranger to searching Google for occasional help when using water based wood finishes. To be sure, there is a lot of great information on the Web. But there is also a lot of MIS-information. Even from so-called “experts.” At best, their statements are “mostly right” (in specific situations).
The Top-5 Water Based Wood Finishing Myths…BUSTED! Read More »
Updated May 2025 High quality wood finishes are an essential aspect of woodworking, providing protection, enhancing beauty, and ensuring the longevity of wood surfaces. With various options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right types of wood finishes for your project. In this blog post, we’ll explore different types of wood finishes, with
The 7 Types of Water-Based Wood Finish: A Comprehensive Guide Read More »
Updated March 2025 A candy coat wood finish can be achieved on many types of projects, and this article will focus specifically on how to achieve it even when you are working with darker colors or low-sheen colors. Why am I highlighting “darker colors and low-sheen?” When using darker, pigmented colors in a 1K paint
How to Create a Candy Coat Wood Finish Read More »
Many woodworkers consider woods with a high oil and rosin content to be among the most beautiful materials available, but finishing oily woods has historically been a challenge to accomplish properly and safely. While the correct surface preparation of the selected wood species is important, the methods of preparation come from various schools of thought.
Pro Advice for Finishing Oily Woods Read More »
Updated: January 2025 Any time there’s a stretch of cold weather, we usually receive a fresh batch of calls and emails about concerns related to cold-weather applications. So, now is a great time to remind everyone that water-based coatings are typically more sensitive to cold weather than oil- or solvent-based coatings and extra attention should
Working with Water Based Wood Finishes in Cold Weather Months Read More »
