varnishing plastic wood

miles teg

Hey
I'm in the middle of restoring some doors where I used plastic wood around the window panes. The plastic wood matched the colour of the wood fine but after I varnished one door (using clear varnish), the plastic wood turned out fairly different to the wood... both in colour as well as glossiness. Can anyone suggest how I can prevent this from happening with the other door or suggest something else to instead?

Thanks

Wertz

That that stuff rawlplug make? Horrible and hard to work with IMO. Try a stopper called Brummer, available in a range of wood hues.
What exactly are you filling? Nailholes? Or are you using it as a glazing putty?
One other thing, I'd have to recommend that any wood filler/stopper is not applied to bare timber, especially darker hues...the timber should always have at least a sealer coat on it, otherwise the filler stains the grain around the hole and is very difficult to put right. Fillers should also be touched up prior to final coat otherwise, they'll affect the lustre of topcoat.
When it comes to matching fillers with wood, you should really use a sample piece of timber with the desired finish, bang some holes in it, apply filler and then recoat to see that the shades match.

miles teg

Thanks for info Wertz.
I was using a product similar to this to layer over glazing putty:
http://www.lenehans.ie/lenehans/Main/Product2.asp?ProdID=537
When I stripped the paint off the door, I was left with uneven putty around the windows that was a different colour to the wood. I used the plastic wood to layer over the putty making it even and the same colour as the wood (I didn't need to seal the wood itself as the plastic wood was only applied over the putty). Everything looked fine till I actually varnished the the wood plastic and it turned out a different colour to the wood. How does wood stopper differ to plastic wood?

tahnks

Wertz

Stopper has a finer ground powder in a solvent base, than the powder in the acrylic paste in plastic wood. It sets harder, can be sanded as desired, drilled, will take nails etc. It's also easier to work with (although it stinks), dries faster and will take stains or dyes. I've found with plastic wood that once it sets if you have any excess or proudness it's very difficult to get it flush again by sanding, so it creates work and the end result isn't as good as the stopper.

Questions; Why did you not using glazing putty and then stain it? Much easier to get the match right when the rest of the wood is coated up. Also, what sort of wood are the doors?

miles teg

Wertz wrote:

...
Questions; Why did you not using glazing putty and then stain it? Much easier to get the match right when the rest of the wood is coated up. Also, what sort of wood are the doors?

The putty was already on the door,so I was basicaly trying to layer over it with something (not realising glazing putty came in different wood colours:rolleyes: ) the same colour as the wood and then varnish the whole thing.
The doors aren't pine but they're a very similar colour...perhaps ash.
So if I were to start over, would you suggest using putty or the brummer stopper?
Thanks

Wertz

I'd go with brummer assuming the putty underneath is sound....there's a knack to working with putty around glass that I've never quite mastered. Getting the brummer on and smooth is much easier...doors could be filled and finished the same day....not so with linseed putty.

For timber like ash or white oak, try the neutral/natural hue or maybe pine (the pine may be too yellow though). You're never gonna get it spot on, that's the nature of wood. Lighter woods are very tough to match up, at least with dark woods you can keep staining

One other question; have you thought about removing the putty altogether and fitting wood beading? Much easier to match wood to wood than fillers to wood.

miles teg

Wertz wrote:

...
One other question; have you thought about removing the putty altogether and fitting wood beading? Much easier to match wood to wood than fillers to wood.

I did consider that at the start but thought the filling would have been easier... it was actually handy enough but just turned out bad
I may well go back and use beading.
thanks for the help