Using Mineral Spirits to Show Wood Grain
George VondriskaIt’s a magic moment…when finish hits your project for the first time and the grain starts to pop, glow, show you just what you’re going to get, it’s soooo cool. Here’s the problem. As you build your project or, even more importantly, as you select your material, you may have a hard time knowing how things are going to look when you get to that magic moment. What will that bees wing walnut or quilted maple or quarter sawn white oak look like when you apply finish? You certainly don’t want to apply finish to a piece of wood BEFORE you incorporate in your project. What’s the solution? Simple. Mineral spirits.
What Mineral Spirits Provide
What makes wood look good under finish? Finish makes wood look wet. What we’re getting from mineral spirits is the opportunity to give wood that wet look, temporarily. unlike finish. As the mineral spirits dries the wet look goes away. But it’ll stick around long enough that you can get a great idea of what the project will look like under finish.
After Effect
Once your “science experiment” is complete, be sure the mineral spirits is completely dry, and do some light sanding to any areas that had mineral spirits on them. As long as there’s ample drying time after you the mineral spirits and before finish, you’ll be fine.
Finishing can be tricky
There’s no easier way to mess up a project than by not doing the finishing steps correctly. It’s a great idea to practice your finishing on scrap before you get to the real project, and also a good idea to let us help you out with more wood finishing tips. For example, you could use homemade wood stain on your next project. Yep, there’s lots of finishing info out there.
I am pretty confident that when this table is done it' gonna have some absolutely beautiful grain patterns going on. It's nice, before you put finish on, to have a look. When we start to apply finish, that's a thing that can really make grain pop. When the wood starts to look wet it really brings things out. So, what can we do now, I'm not ready for finish yet, to see what I've got here, to get a feel for what this is gonna look like?
Mineral spirits is the answer for this. I've got some in this cup and I'm gonna concentrate on this area right here. Have a look at what the spalting and the quilting is gonna look like when it's under finish. Oh my gosh! Look at that.
This is absolutely beautiful. Now, what's the deal with the mineral spirits? All we're doing here is we're very briefly getting the wood wet so we can have an idea, we can have a feel, for what that's gonna look like. If you were making this for a customer, this would be an opportunity to take a picture and say, "Here's what this is gonna look like," "when it's done, when it's under finish." Once that mineral spirits dries, we can do a little bit of sanding here and then you can go back to whatever your normal finishing process is. In other words, we're not leaving anything behind here that's gonna adversely affect your finishing later.
So net-net, mineral spirits provides a great way that we can briefly get the wood wet, have an idea of what it's gonna look like when it's under our final finish under our final top coat.
I use Naphtha - flashes off quicker, doesn't raise the grain, and leaves no residue at all. Smells better than mineral spirits, too. ;)
I have used mineral spirits on a wormy maple and then soon after applied a coat of Danish Oil... the result, I suspect is inconsistent oil penetration into the wood... how long should I have waited for the mineral spirits to dry? And what would you suggest to fix the issue? I can send you some pics if it helps ... thx
I heard that you can use either acitone or charcoal lighter fluid as a replacement. In California and other states it's almost impossible to get mineral spirits
The other main advantage of using mineral spirits other than previewing the grain, is that it is a good way to get rid of any dust that settles down in the pores of the wood. It is also great for seeing if there is any traces of glue left behind before doing final finish work. Finally, yes it is know as white spirit in the u.k.
Here in California you can’t get mineral spirits as it’s been deemed too hazardous. What is an alternative to it?
Would using water be a problem ?
Maybe a silly question...Why not just apply a light coating of water?
Here in Great Britain we have Methylated Spirit which has a purple die in it to prevent abuse by drinking it! What other mineral spirit would you recommend please?
Would that be 'White Spirit ' in the UK, used for thinning conventional paint? (Sometimes known as 'White Paraffin' - a light kerosene-like material)
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