Wood Finishing Terms

  • Adhesion: - The property causing one material to stick to another.
  • Barrier Coat: - A coat applied which separates the substrate from contact with the topcoats.
  • Bleeding: - When a dye or color absorbs through to the top layer. This is due to a common solvency of the topcoat and the dye.
  • Bloom: - A bluish haze of a film usually caused by insufficient drying time of the oil stain before topcoating.
  • Blushing: - A white, milky cast in a film which is caused by trapping moisture into the film. Blushing can be prevented and eliminated by slowing down the drying of the coating by adding a blush retarder.
  • Blush Retarder: - A reducer with slower drying properties.
  • Body: - The thickness of viscosity of the coating while in liquid form.
  • Bond: - The adhesion of or ability of two items to stick to one another.
  • Bridge: - When a finish forms a layer over a crack or void.
  • Burn-in: - Method of filling a defect in wood using a hot knife and a Burn -In Stick of resin or shellac.
  • Coat: - The act of applying a coating to a surface.
  • Coating: - Any material applied to a surface leaving a protective layer on that surface. e.g. lacquer, polyurethane, vinyl, acrylic, butyrate, Danish or drying oils, and shellac are all types of coatings.
  • Cold Checking: - the cracking of a finish due to exposure to cold temperatures.
  • Crawling: - When a coating applied tends to flow away from areas leaving them uncoated. This is usually caused by grease or oil contamination of the surface to be coated.
  • De laminate: - The separation of layers due to lack of intercoat or substrate adhesion.
  • Distressing: - Fly speck spotting (and/or other age marks) in the finished surface or on the substrate.
  • Dye: - A coloring material that dissolves completely in a system very transparent.
  • Dry Hard: - The elapsed time at which a coating has reached its optimum hardness
  • Fading: - The loss of color due to exposure to sunlight.
  • Fast to Light: - A color which is not significantly affected by exposure to sunlight.
  • Fish Eye: - Pock marks or craters that show up on finished surface when silicone is present.
  • Flash or Flash-Off: - The point at which a sprayed coating stops flowing or leveling, premature flash causes orange-peel when the atomized droplets do not flow into a completely flat and even film.
  • Flash-Off Control Solvent: An addative that extends the wet time or "flash" of a sprayed or brushed coating.
  • Flash Point (Flamability): - The temperature at which a material will ignite when exposed to a source of ignition.
  • Flood: - The act of very heavily applying a coating to the substrate.
  • Flow: - The fluid sheeting and leveling of a coating.
  • French Polish: - A shellac base coating which is applied by manually "padding" it onto the surface.
  • Glaze: - An oil based pigmented treatment which is applied between lacquer coats to accent or give a grained effect.
  • Gloss or Sheen: - The shininess or reflectability of a surface.
  • Holiday: - An uncoated area of a coated surface usually missed unintentionally.
  • Incompatible: - Used in reference to coatings and/or stains which are not capable of being mixed with one another.
  • Leveling: - The act of applying a coat which will smooth out a previously rough (orange peeled) coat.
  • Lifting: - The softening and repenetration of a previous coat resulting in anything from an "orange peel"to a "stripping" effect. This is usually caused by applying strong solvented coating over a curing type coating (curing type coating would be catalytic lacquer, urethane lacquer, polyurethane and enamels.)
  • Non-Volatile: - The solid material which is left after total solvent evaporation.
  • Nitrocellulose: - The primary resin material used in making lacquer.
  • Opaque / Opacity: - The degree of hiding of a pigmented coating. The opposite of transparent.
  • Orange Peel: - A rough surface of a film similar in appearance to the skin of an orange. This is usually caused by spraying in high heat, draft or a material that is too thick or heavy in viscosity.
  • Pigment: - A finely ground, insoluble powder which contributes color to a coating - usually very color fast.
  • Pinholeing: - The appearance of numerous small holes in a film, usually caused by bubbles due to high heat drying of the coating.
  • Primer: - A coating which is first applied to a bare surface.
  • Reducer / Thinner: - To add solvent in order to thin a material to a workable thickness (viscosity).
  • Sanding Sealer: - A lacquer or other coating formulated to give better filling and sandability than the topcoat products.
  • Substrate: - The surface or material to be coated.
  • Transparent: - Clear enough to see through.
  • Translucent: - Allows light to pass through but not clear enough to see through.
  • Viscosity: - The thickness of a coating material in its liquid form.
  • Volatile: - The solvent portion of a coating.
  • Washcoat: - Very thin coat of shellac or sanding sealer or coating.
  • Water White: - A term used to describe the color of a coating in its liquid form. (Water white -- meaning as clear and colorless as drinking water.)

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