Good Lacquer in Aerosol Can or by hand?

[Phillips]

I repair, rebuild and refinish Persimmon wood golf clubs. Some of the clubs I have "recently" started to work on are from the 20's and 30's . My teacher suggests if I want to try refinishing these clubs to period, I should try to find a good lacquer and in a aerosol can. The wood stain will be alcohol(felt tip marker) or water(Aniline) based.
Question # 1 - are there good lacquers out there in an aersol can?
Question # 2 - Can I achieve "just as good" results with a lacquer that I apply by hand as opposed to aerosol spray?

Mr. B.M. Phillips
St. Catharines

[Bill MacDonald, Toronto]

Welcome to the forum!

Lee Valley carries Deft lacquer in spray cans.

Rona carried it as well, the last time I checked. They also have a store brand of spray lacquer which is good.

I used the brush on Deft lacquer in the past with very good results. If you have an airbrush, you can also spray the brush on lacquer right out of the can, again with good results.

[phil]

the stuff in the cans works fine. the can is thinned quite a bit to get it out of the can. If you can make the wood smooth and prepped first it will help as the lacquer won't fill the grain as much as some finishes.

It is easy to work with just keep building coats and sanding enough so it is smooth.

You can also get an array of colored toners in lacquer spray bombs, as well, so you can combine those for darkening or coloring.

I sometimes do old radios , they are from the 30's as well. They used lacquer so it is usually the correct finish for restoration work. They also used toners to a great extent originally.

My objective is ultimately to restore a set to what would be considered well preserved original condition. With that in mind, even if the original set had clear lacquer on it, it would have by now yellowed and darkened.

I either combine one very faint layer of a brown color between coats to allow them to meld together, or if I use my gun I just mix it to look like coffee.

you may try to put one heavy toner coat on a part and wipe most of it off, leaving the lower areas to simulate the effect of the finish wearing lighter where it is touched and darker in any nicks and crannies.

If "all goes wrong" laquer thinner washes the whole finish off very easily.

anyway just some ideas, I can see a similarity in the hobby as far as the finish is concerned.

Phil

[Brian Hinther]

Most people recommend spraying because the lacquer dries so fast. My only caveat about Deft lacquer is that it yellows significantly after a year or two.

[Mack C. in Brooklin ON]

[quote=Bill MacDonald, Toronto;250216]Welcome to the forum!

Lee Valley carries Deft lacquer in spray cans.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,190,42942

Lacquer spray by Deft hasn't been available at LV for the past 3 - 4 mths, and are presently being shown as no longer available.

[Bill MacDonald, Toronto]

[quote=Mack C. in Brooklin ON;250282]

Originally Posted by Bill MacDonald, Toronto

Welcome to the forum!



http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,190,42942

Lacquer spray by Deft hasn't been available at LV for the past 3 - 4 mths, and are presently being shown as no longer available.

My apologies for the incorrect information.

[Napalm]

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=163

is available at Rona (or HD? I don't remember which, it think I saw it in Rona).

[Bill MacDonald, Toronto]

I was in Rona this morning and they now carry both spray and brush on Watco lacquer.

[master finishing]

Many paint stores have the ability to fill spray bombs so you can get any type or quality of lacquer you want(or any other paint for that matter). Pieces from the 20's or 30's was done in NC lacquer, if it is a lacquer finish which will yellow very quickily and is fairly soft. If you are just doing touch up you can use NC. If you are stripping and refinishing you would certainly get far more durable finishing from modern precat assuming this is for display only. If you plan to swing the club stick with the NC as it is far more flexible. Precats don't flex they crack.

[Bob in Windsor]

I tried some Mohawk precat in spray cans for a recent project and was very happy with it.They also sell a nice sanding sealer.

[Paul O in Paris]

Originally Posted by Phillips

Question # 1 - are there good lacquers out there in an aersol can?
Question # 2 - Can I achieve "just as good" results with a lacquer that I apply by hand as opposed to aerosol spray?

Mr. B.M. Phillips
St. Catharines

Answer #1: there are "good" lacquers in spray bombs out there, I've been using them in on site furniture repair/touch up for a long time. Best quality lacquer and best delivery is from Konig, followed by Mohawk (Richelieu). Google them for more info. Unless you have a business, or know someone that does, it's hard to get them. I prefer the Konig because the atomization is better, and the cans give a longer spray time before they start to "spit". Dover Products also make aerosol lacquers, and they are more readily available. If you want a "quality" lacquer, avoid the "off the shelf/box store stuff". As someone else pointed out, these aerosol can products are thinned down significantly, and they are also a low solids lacquer to begin with, so building a decent coat is a slow, repetitive process.

Answer #2: probably not, as quality NC lacquers dry very quickly and are not designed for hand application. If you go that rout, be prepared for plenty of sanding between coats to even the finish out.

Suggestion: if you are doing this on a regular basis. consider purchasing an air brush or, if you have a compressor, a small (automotive) touch up gun. The big advantage of these application methods is that you can use a superior quality, high solids lacquer, you don't have to keep shaking the applicator, and you will apply way less coats. I get my NC lacquer from John E Goudey in Toronto: they sell a variety of products and will also sell you quarts (I'm thinking you won't need 5 gal pails!!). They also sell Dover products.

Good luck....................Paul

[phil]

not meaning to contradict anything said, I agree whit the previous posts, but the OP is doing golf clubs so the amount of time spent sanding would be pretty negligable. for a large project the spray bombs would tend to get expensive and they won't put out a nice pattern like a gun, but a little elbow grease and a few extra coats might save needing to buy stuff, unless he does a lot of them.
I have only used the Mohawk ones and got acceptable results. I think the colors I used most were extra dark walnut ( for really dark areas) and perfect brown and van dyke brown for tinting.
The one place where you can have an issue is if you get a drip or spatter with the toners, What I found was this is best done with a "literally" once across from a distance of 18 inches or so. do more coats after it dries if you want it darker.

Phil

[Phillips]

Thanks Bill and everyone else!
Blair