Finish Durability and repair
#4
Last year, I stripped, stained, and refinished a table top for a friend. Her husband is a taxidermist, and we were able to trade labor, so I got a deer mounted out of the deal. 

I used General Finishes Enduro Clear Poly as the top coat. They loved the color and finish. Fast forward to last week. They had purchased a bottle of Scent Killer Gold in preparations for deer season, left the newly purchased, sealed bottle on the table while they were taking care of other tasks. They come back to find that the bottle must have leaked and ruined the finish and turned the oak black. I am guessing that the scent killer must be ammonia based, but I emailed the company for a MSDS to see for sure.

As for repairing the top, I still have the stain that I used, but no longer have the GF product for the top coat. Any ideas on how to repair without stripping the entire top? Getting the black out, may require some aggressive sanding.

The reason I had to refinish it the first time was because the husband spilled gun cleaning solvent on the table. What topcoats are impervious to ammonia and gun cleaning solvents?

Worst case, If I have to re-strip the entire top, I may be good for another mount.
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#5
(09-07-2017, 08:50 AM)Scoony Wrote: Last year, I stripped, stained, and refinished a table top for a friend. Her husband is a taxidermist, and we were able to trade labor, so I got a deer mounted out of the deal. 

I used General Finishes Enduro Clear Poly as the top coat. They loved the color and finish. Fast forward to last week. They had purchased a bottle of Scent Killer Gold in preparations for deer season, left the newly purchased, sealed bottle on the table while they were taking care of other tasks. They come back to find that the bottle must have leaked and ruined the finish and turned the oak black. I am guessing that the scent killer must be ammonia based, but I emailed the company for a MSDS to see for sure.

As for repairing the top, I still have the stain that I used, but no longer have the GF product for the top coat. Any ideas on how to repair without stripping the entire top? Getting the black out, may require some aggressive sanding.

The reason I had to refinish it the first time was because the husband spilled gun cleaning solvent on the table. What topcoats are impervious to ammonia and gun cleaning solvents?

Worst case, If I have to re-strip the entire top, I may be good for another mount.


Ammonia is a tough one for any finish.  That's one of the killer catagories in the testing standards.

Some thoughts:
1) Witness marks are going to be a strong possibility if you spot-repair the damage.  It may require a full strip and sand-down of the top.
2) May also have some issues with stain absorption in the area of the damage resulting in color miss-match.  You could either experiment a bit and feather things out or sand down.
3) The toughest film finishes tend to be the type that require catalysts.  More complicated application, more expense.  But generally tougher in both the poly and lacquer categories. -- somewhat over-simplifying.

edit to add, what about the possibility of an epoxy finish?
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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#6
Bummer. Clear Poly is pretty tough stuff. Spot repair? Maybe but I'd call it a long shot. Oxalic acid should remove the black stains once you strip, sand or scrape off any remining finish in that area. If you have to strip it all off conversion varnish or a 2K poly would offer higher durability over Clear Poly or any non catalyzed finish.

John
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