finish recommendation for pebbled exterior

[Karl Best]

A new style that I've been playing with lately is a roughed or pebbled exterior on ash, courtesy a Saburtooth Buzzout wheel on my die grinder. I've tried a couple of different finishes, including walnut oil and lately a couple coats of spray lacquer. These have been okay, but I'm not satisfied that they're what I want to continue with. I would prefer a gloss or semi gloss finish. Can anyone suggest another finish that I should try?

 

[Carl Scott]

Spray can polyurethane use the gloss

 

[Sam Fleisher]

This has three coats of zinzer sanding sealer with one coat of general finishes "arm r seal" gloss on top. I sanded it back and put a second coat of arm r seal on this morning so I don't know if it looks the same since I put it under a cover to keep the dust off. They recommend three coats but with so much sanding sealer I'm going to wait and see.

I was really pleased with the way the arm r seal went on. That's dry in the pic so it's definitely gloss. Ash wood.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Lately this type carving is a big thing to do a dry brush finish. It highlights the high parts. Then all that is needed is a seal coat.

 

[Jim Reynolds]

Steve Bonny recently posted an alternative finishing technique using milk paint Shades of Blue. What little I know about this technique I learned from Mark Gardner at Arrowmont. My experiments with multiple colors/coats and then lightly sanding back areas pleased me.

 

[Isaac Fisher]

You say you’ve already tried lacquer. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anything better for a gloss finish on that kind of irregular surface. Try adding more coats and then playing with various polishing techniques to even the surface and then bring up the sheen.

 

[Matt Meadows]

I'm going to agree with Isaac. If you can spray using a cheap HVLP spray gun off an air compressor, get a can of lacquer retarder (butyl cellosolve will work too) at about a 3 to 5% thinning amount. They are crazy slow drying so don't overdose them or it will take hours to dry.

 

[Jim Kent]

A new style that I've been playing with lately is a roughed or pebbled exterior on ash, courtesy a Saburtooth Buzzout wheel on my die grinder. I've tried a couple of different finishes, including walnut oil and lately a couple coats of spray lacquer. These have been okay, but I'm not satisfied that they're what I want to continue with. I would prefer a gloss or semi gloss finish. Can anyone suggest another finish that I should try?

i just saw this, i have a question once you used the wheel on this did you do any additional sanding? once you had the texture the way you like it was wondering about the divits were the rough?

 

[Karl Best]

i just saw this, i have a question once you used the wheel on this did you do any additional sanding? once you had the texture the way you like it was wondering about the divits were the rough?

After using the Buzzout wheel I quickly sanded with a couple of grits to smooth the high points. The exterior otherwise has a rough feel to it. The inside of the divits stay as is.

 

[Chris Lawrence]

A coat of sanding sealer and more coats of lacquer. I normally do 6 coats. I have narrowed down my gloss to satin finish to emtec 7000hb water based lacquer. It does not need to be sanded between coats like traditional lacquer and has an odor like water based poly. Its also water clear so it does not change the color of the wood much. Its not cheap but well worth the money for a gloss finish. They just sent me a promo code Aug30 that will save you 30%. I spray it with the $35 detail hvlp spray gun from harbor freight.