(waterbased clear) POLY (-urethane varnish). Part One. The Beginning.

I started brushing on poly. Here's the result after 4 thin coats and a 5th thicker coat, with intermediate sanding/scuffing.

Another 10 coats before I let it cure hard for a couple of weeks. Then I'll sand it smooth and buff it with compound.

I'll write a more comprehensive article when I'm done. Only thing I can say is that brushing is tricky and tedious, but rewarding and worth it in the end.

Half-baked French polish

Remember the dripping shellac thing of the last article? Man, I thought I really ruined the job and that I'd end up with some backyardish junk.

Well, there's apparently always a way to fix up a mess.

I went back to the basics of applying shellac: French polish. And I also went back to my favorite store downtown Brussels, carrying all kinds of peculiar artist supply to buy cotton wick. Extremely cheap stuff.

Why call it half baked? For a couple of reasons. First of all, the traditional purpose of French polish is high gloss finish. And that's not my intent here, I want to achieve good sealing and surface preparation for poly.

Secondly, my process doesn't involve any oil - like it's supposed to - for obvious reasons.

Since shellac when applied with a pad is pretty forgiving, it makes messing around possible. If something goes wrong, it's just a matter of loading up your pad and blending the blunder down.

First of all, after inspecting, some more drips to get rid of.

1. Making a shellac pad

Take a piece of 10"x10" (25cm x 25cm) white used cloth (an old t-shirt or some used bed linen) and fill it with a ball of cotton wick. Done. Cost: 5 cents.

2. Thinning shellac down

A 2 pound cut is too heavy for pad application. It must be thinned down to 1 1/2 pound cut. Just add denatured alcohol.

3. Rubbing with the pad.

Load up the cotton wick with shellac, not too much. Work along the grain, with narrow 8 movements, from batter side to reso side. When pad sticks and stops slipping, reload with a little shellac (3 ml - I use a syringe). The rule: damp, not wet.

4. Stop after 2 coats and let it cure. 

I let it sit overnight since I'm doing this job late.

This is basically the idea behind working with shellac, you'll find tons of detailed videos and articles on the internet.

5. The result.

Here are some pictures of the sealed wood, after many coats - didn't count - more than 20.

Well, I like the sheen and the very thin layer of gloss, looking "natural". This really makes me wanna try a proper French polish on some other project, with pumice grain filling and oil.

On the other hand, if you take a closer look, the wood grain is still there. So that's the reason why I will keep going with the process I had in mind and apply a dozen coats of waterborne poly.

Dear followers, say goodbye to the beautiful sheen since it's gonna be sanded away with 400 grit with water.

Sealing with shellac.

Since I will apply a water-based clear poly, I have to seal the stained wood to avoid stain smearing poly and making a mess. After doing some research, I have decided to use a dewaxed shellac sealer.

This natural product has many advantages:

• Inexpensive when bought in flakes
• Durable (you just mix the quantity you need, the dry flakes can be stored forever)
• Non toxic, it's just alcohol and "bug resin", it's actually edible !
• Easy to apply
• Warms up the color tone (water-based poly is very "white")
• Has some grain filling properties

As recommended by this webpage, I made a bottle of 2 pound-cut (two pounds of flakes to one gallon of alcohol ratio) shellac, it's the regular mix. Converted in metric system:

• 3785 ml of alcohol (one gallon) with 907 grams (2 pounds) of shellac
• 417 ml of alcohol with 100 grams of shellac

They recommend a 3 pound cut for sealing stain and filling grain, but I prefer to work with several thin coats for more control.

Preparing is pretty simple, it's basically pouring alcohol into the container, adding the flakes and putting the container in hot water, stirring occasionally.

After letting it sit overnight, it's now perfectly mixed, with no flakes remaining

Took this picture later, I've used already 50%.

It makes you ca. 485 ml (16.4 fl. oz) of shellac, should be enough for a couple of coats. I paid 6,2 euros for shellac and 2 euros for denatured alcohol. As I said, cheap.
Important notice: shellac goes bad after some time, it won't dry hard, rather gummy. So don't mix too much at once, and make it just before starting to work.

I applied the first coat of shellac using a flat brush. It's easy to apply because shellac isn't very thick and flows easily.

And the effect is wow. It really brings out the stained wood tone, adding some depth to it.

But let's be honest, there's an issue on curved surfaces, like a drum shell. If you apply a little too much and that it starts dripping down, the dripping marks will cure hard in a minute. That's what happened here and there.

I had to sand them off using 400 grit with water.

Bottom-right, you see the sanded area.

Buy the way, this step of the process proves that shellac really acts like a sealer, and sanding with water had little effect on stained wood. So I gave it a go and re-sanded lightly all the shells.

At some point, you might think that you screwed up your work. Sanding paste turns green, ouch, what am I doing? But giving up is no option.

After cleaning up "the mess", I crossed my fingers and brushed on a second coat, trying this time not to apply too much.

It went better - and apparently no faded spots due to sanding - but couldn't avoid build-up marks. Shellac dries that fast. Again, some local sanding and some cold sweat. I even had to re-stain lightly the spots where I sanded through the shellac and took off some of the stain. Brr. No pictures, sorry... 

At this point, I had to think it over. Building up thicker layers of shellac sounds good, but avoiding dripping or overlapping marks is very hard. I definitely have to find a more controllable way to apply shellac and avoid excessive sanding. Read on the next article my experiments with what I will call half baked French polishing.

Some late night tryout of what looks like the right thing to do

Fauxing and fixing.

A few words on fixing lighter spots, blending wood patches, messing around with creative techniques...

When staining was done - 2 passes with intermediate sanding - the surface showed flaws here and there that needed to get fixed. I could have left it as it was, but see it like some kind of restoration laboratory.

1. Making it darker

I used some CLOU stain and black artist acrylic, mixed together to get a slightly darker green. The main difference is that thanks to acrylic paint, it sticks better.

Applied with a small point brush, it helps you:
- Covering unstained spots caused by wood paste, as I wrote earlier, made with too much binder
- Adding "faux figuring" on wood patches or where staining failed or wasn't even

One golden rule: be subtle and work with thin layers, with very little paint.

 

Here I redrawed the wood figuring. You'll notice cross grain sanding marks. They were made by one of the previous owners, probably when rewrapping. I tried to sand them off, but wasn't able to remove them without damaging the outer ply. I'll try to fix that afterwards.

2.Making it lighter

Two different methods: sand it very lightly with 400 grit, till wood begins to show through. Or use clean water and remove stain progressively.

Some tryout on the test shell

 3. Blending

Most fixed areas can be blended together sanding it lightly with 400 or with scotchbrite pad, depending on the desired effect.

It's always hard to tell the border between underdoing it or overdoing it, but I guess I did my best.

Staining. Continued.

I guess that something in the back of my mind told me that one step staining sounded too easy. So I gave it a thought.

After inspecting the stained shells, I noticed that they lost the smoothness of the 180 grit sanding. The fibers raised back when applying stain. Makes sense, it's basically water. Given the wood surface will get some sealer coats before poly - and that sealer won't work on a grainy surface - I have to get back to a smooth finish.

Hard to see on the picture, but it's not smooth at all

So I put the test shell back on the working rack to try something.

First of all, I sanded the stained surface with 240 grit. Seems to work, it does make the stain fade slightly, but it looks alright. The wood is now smooth again.

I cleaned the sanding dust using naphta since it doesn't dissolve stain (like water would).

I then applied a light coat of stain, using the sponge, in the direction of the grain, trying to blend properly.

Before that last buffing, I also did some faux figuring job, read it under the related article.

When done, I buffed the surface with a fine scotchbrite pad. The finish is now smooth, perfect for applying sealer.

Again, hard to guess on the picture, but way smoother

It actually had little impact on the stain tone, I have the feeling it makes it a little more even, but it's very subtle.

 Underneath the finished sample. The overall tone is the same, but more even.

On the 13" tom-tom and on the 16" floortom, buffing with scotchbrite feels enough. On the bassdrum though, the outside ply is grainier, the coarser spots must be sanded carefully - otherwise the thin layer of stained wood will be damaged - using 400 grit.

Here's a good idea of what the stained wood figuring looks like.

Things I learned from this work:

• Sponge works fine. At 8 cents a piece.
• I mixed way too much stain. I used something like 100 ml for 2 square meters. Literature on the internet says 150 ml per square meter, which is totally wrong, unless you soak it completely.
• I get whiter spots where I applied the woodpaste made with more - too much - binder. My bad.
• CLOU stain is very controllable. I had stain dripping but I managed to blend it afterwards by rubbing the sponge.
• No need to fill the mounting holes since the sponge method refrains you from using too much stain

A few thoughts.

Well, I'm giving here a few thoughts on the kind of restoration I'm busy with.

I've performed quite extensive plugging and crack repair using wood patches/plugs. Some will certainly think that it might affect the sound. Well, to be honest, I have no idea. Maybe a slight impact. But I personally think that a heavy piece of cast metal like a tom mount on a bassdrum affects the sound more than a few small wood patches.

Some might also think that I shouldn't denature the style of an old drumkit, and that I should strive to restore it to its original condition. I don't do it for two reasons. 

First of all, I only work with less valuable models, that you can come across for almost nothing. My concept is to take advantage of the built quality of those drumkits, but give them another look. 

See it like some sort of upcycling rather than pure restoration. 

Secondly, I try to keep it on a low budget, and find alternative solutions in terms of finish and missing parts. I'd rather source cheap SONOR German made hardware leftovers than try to look for that original drum part. 

I love a players' drum, an instrument that's meant to be banged.

Staining.

Here we go. I said no turning back.

It went fine. Not perfect, but let's not forget that these are old shells, and that they weren't made to be stained. If you want perfect stain, my opinion is that you need to veneer the shells.

I read some articles on the internet on how to get a more even staining by applying one coat of thinned shellac sealer before staining. But I actually chose to follow CLOU's instructions and work directly on bare wood.

I actually rubbed the first coat working in the direction of the grain, and then I applied a second coat when still wet, by making circular movements with the sponge.

The overall tone is good and will look stunning under a high gloss clear poly.

The wood patches actually blended nicer than I thought they would.

Anyway, I like the green tone, it's not too dark, not to yellow, kinda classy. Next picture gives a good idea of what it looks like.

And masking the inside of the shells was definitely a good idea.

Dunkelgrün 158.

Staining wood is a one shot operation. Once you start there's no turning back without re-sanding everything. So a little preparation is a must.

First of all, to be able to work properly and comfortably, I built two shell racks out of furniture chipboard leftovers - found on the street. I'll use the low one for working (at an optimal working height of 106 cm - 3' 6") and the other one for storing the other two shells when drying.

Secondly, I masked the inside of the shell with plastic foil and painters' tape (I used das Schonende from STORCH), since I don't want stain or lacquer to make a mess on the oiled finish. Doing it properly is time consuming, but it'll save you time in the end. You'll see.

Btw, plastic foil is upcycled IKEA HDPE mattress wrap.

I've always wanted a dark green drumkit but never got the chance to own one.

The stain is Dunkelgrün 158 from the German CLOU brand. It's inexpensive and an instrument builder's favorite in Europe - from what I see when googling.

I used two packs to make sure I have enough stain (500 ml or 1/2 quart) in case I should apply two coats. You just have to mix it with warm water, I used distilled water for security.

Note: the glass container used to be filled with some delicious Valfrutta organic tomato sauce. Highly recommended for all your pasta cravings.

I'll try the sponge application method. I actually cut a sponge in two to have more control.

As you can see, I try to stay organized and have a nice work area: clean table, convenient container, natural light, handwritten hipster lettering...

Applying CLOU stain proved to be very very easy. You need to be careful not applying too much (or it will drip) or too little (you'll get uneven staining). But it's overall very controllable, fixing lighter of darker spots can be done by rubbing the sponge as long it's not completely dry.

Here's the finished staining test on the 14" shell - that I'll be using for building the 7 1/4 snare drum by the way. The outside will be lacquered, so using the shell for testing was no issue.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Deep green out of the box, that beautifully enhances the vertical beech wood grain.

Definitely one fourth slotted rod.

Just arrived in the mail today.

I can't think of another tool that would be more vintage SONOR specific.

Yep. A set of taps and die in BSW 1/4 20 thread, chosen by SONOR for their famous original slotted rods.

Mmh those hard to screw lugs working smooth again...

I bought them on eBay, the price was fair and the quality looks alright.

They are indeed a perfect match to the old SONOR thread (here with some FORCE 2000 hardware)

Sanding and woodpaste filling.

After spending quite a few hours on plugging and repairing, I'm now ready for sanding the shells.

When I started this project I considered veneering the outside of the shells, and then staining. After some time working on it, I realized that I kinda liked the typical Sonor beech wood grain, and that it was a nice base to start from afterwards.

Nice grain indeed. The four holes are those of the disappeared badge.

I'll keep the veneering idea for the snaredrum I'll built with the 14x10 tom.

In order to sand off glue leftovers (on the outside), sealer (on the inside) and finishing plugs, I started with 60 grit. To make sure I would follow the shape of the shell when sanding, I carved sanding blocks out of polyurethane insulation panels, matching each diameter.

I then kept on sanding - by hand - along the grain using 80 and 100 grit.

It's now time for filling small dents and joints. I used what I call a "noble" woodpaste, made with a nitrocellulose binder called "Pafuki" (from Berger-Siedle, a German brand) and wood flour.

Note: I got much of my supply from my uncle's cabinet company. Don't hesitate to contact your local cabinet maker / wood floor company, I'm sure they won't mind giving away some products / scrap wood / plugs.

 In this case, I'm experimenting with a 2 step process, filling deep cracks using a thicker paste, sanding and then filling small dents using a thinner cut (see below).

Here are some pictures of the shells, just before staining.

Patchwork went fine and sits flush with the shells. Only little issue was the wood tone of the bassdrum patch. I think I used - without realizing - natural beech, that's whiter than steamed beech. I'll try to fix that during staining.

The inside was sanded with 120 and 150 grit. Since it will be oiled, I decided not to go further than 150 to keep the wood feel.

Inside of the bassdrum. The shell must be 40 years old.

The outside was also sanded with 120 / 150 then rubbed with clean water to raise the loose wood fibers. When dry, they were sanded off with 180. Getting rid of the tiny loose fibers guarantees a more even staining.

Before rubbing water

After

 I am quite happy with the floortom repair that turned out pretty nice and barely noticeable.

The patchwork on the 13" rack tom shows the difference between white beech and steamed beech.  But overall satisfying.

Next step is staining, but first I'll have to mask the inside of the shells. Inside oiled finish will be done after outside is varnished, I don't want any oil messing up the outside surface preparation.