Question
I've done a handful of these finishes lately, and it gets me every time. It's a painted finish with darker glaze, applied heavy to all surfaces, including the flats. My current project is a typical traditional entertainment wall unit 10'W x 8'H, raised panel doors. Waterbased paint (MLC Agualente) on off-white, satin sheen, followed by waterbased glaze in Raw Umber. The glaze is General Finishes Glaze Effects, also waterbased, ultimately topcoated with Agualente clear.
My first problem is dealing with the open time. I mask off sections when possible, like adjacent inside faces of upper cabinets. Areas are large, and I find myself running out of time to work the glaze. I more or less slop it on with a brush, then rag it off. Because it's on every surface, consistency of direction and color are key. Once I start wiping, I get about three passes at best before it starts to set up. This is ok for tops or exterior cabinet sides, but for interior surfaces, it's difficult to move superfast when working into the corners or where the side meets the ceiling of the cabinet. The end result is that it often looks messy in those areas. Is there any way to extend the open time? Any other suggestions? I've gone so far as to pre-finish interior faces before assembly, but the design/construction details don't always allow this.
The rag-off technique is very difficult to do nicely in small detail areas, like in the profiles of raised panel doors. I'm masking off the rails and stiles, and doing the raised panel and rail/stile profiles first, along with the raised panel. I've been using a soft artist's brush for the profile areas, and this gives a decent result, but the brush strokes look slightly different from the lines created by wiping with a rag. Also, the brush tends to pull the glaze out of the sharp profiles where I want it to be darker. I use the brush because it gives me better control. Any suggestions for a better way/better tools/better products to do this?
Masking off is proving to be a pain - it's time consuming. The glaze bleeds under the edge (blue 3M tape). I can't use it on areas that I've glazed because it will pull the glaze off.
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor K:
Try the Renner glaze if you can purchase some. They have a spray and wipe (open time half hour) or an old fashion slop on slop off style (open time one hour). I haven't had any compatibility issues, but I would do a test first.
Another trick is when I am doing the brushing part. I cut the air way back to make it splatter. That way I know exactly how much I am putting on by the size and amount of splatters. Also it stays wet longer when it is splattered. As soon as you hit it with the brush it starts to dry. I don't use mlc for my glazes/faux work I have been using Faux Effects out of Florida for ten plus years. Everyone has their own styles right?
Another thing I worry about since there's no sanding of the paint before applying the glaze is adhesion problems with my clear topcoat? I believe the glaze has some ingredient that gives it some bite, but when you thin it way out (I do that, too), that ingredient gets diluted. By the way, I'm pretty sure that diluting with water isn't helping with the open time. Maybe diluting with the clear base glaze is a better idea.
Alternatively you can go to a local pharmacy and purchase some Glycerin. That is a trick I learned years ago to give a longer working time to stains and glazes. While water was not recommended above, I just did a fairly large on site glazing job like you described and I did thin down my GF glaze with water by a fairly large percentage (30%) and it was more workable and gave me the effect I needed so I wouldn't rule it completely out.
After years of using aqualente I would also suggest trying GF tinted Poly. It was reformulated about two years ago and in my opinion it outperforms the MLC product. Plus you can get pretty good tech support from GF when you keep in the same family of products.
