Glazing as a Finish

Finishing is one of the most intimidating aspects of woodworking for many people, particularly when it comes to adding color to wood through the use of stains and dyes. In addition to testing your finishing steps on a piece of scrap wood so that you are confident in the outcome before applying stain, an important skill to develop is the ability to add color after a topcoat has been applied. This can be important in situations where you need to even out a color if the stain wasn’t absorbed evenly into the wood, leaving a blotchy appearance, and it can also be useful if a repair needs to be made to a surface, as it can help to blend in the repaired area without having to refinish the entire piece.

The technique that is needed to add color to a wooden surface that has a top coat already applied is called glazing. The steps involved with glazing include:

Dry brushing. With glazing you will need to develop some finesse around applying stain to the surface, and removing excess to achieve the desired level of darkening. This is known as dry brushing because you can continue to make adjustments as the stain is beginning to dry on the surface.

Blending color. The overall effect that you want to achieve as you performing the glazing process is a unification of the color across the surface, or a gentle blending of colors as a finish transitions from one color to the next as you would do with a sunburst finish.

Additional top coat. After the stain dries in your glazing process it will be important to add a couple additional clear top coats so that your stain is protected and will not migrate onto items that come into contact with the glazed surface.

If you want to explore finishing in greater depth, check out our Finishing Essentials class.