Any tips on rubbing out a water based finish? In my experience, assuming the finish is dry, there isn't a difference other than the coarseness of the sand paper or steel wool. Questions about rubbing out with #0000 steel wool Hi Everyone - I’m wrapping up my first woodworking project in my new house, a desk for my home office/gaming station and have a couple questions on how to rub out the finish. The abrasive produces extremely fine, uniform "scratches" that go in the direction of the wood grain, helping to hide both brush marks and the "orange peel" texture common to sprayed finishes. Take a brown paper bag, the kind you would pack your lunch in, and rub over the finish. Rub The Steel Wool: Customers must start rubbing the steel wool … The paste wax can be bought at most big box stores. After the finish has cured for a week or so, I typically use 0000 steel wool and paste wax to "finish the finish", as Marc says. Bob Flexner, one particularly trustworthy source, recommends against using steel wool for denibbing and final flatting because it (along with other conformable abrasives) have more of a rounding-off … EDIT: I see where you have used a brown bag. The wax helps in creating a constant surface. If you want you can use water, oil or wool lube as a lubricant to make the rubbing easier. I have recently switched over to spraying water Bourne finishes. Some people have posted that steel wool should never be used with a water Bourne finish … The steel wool will give you a soft, satiny shine.Just be careful when you start the sanding process that you don't cut through the top coat. That should smooth the finish out pretty good. Using steel wood to polish wood might seem out of place and actually harmful to the surface of the wood, but it isn't if done properly. Using steel wool or sand paper allows you to create a uniform surface for the next coat of polyurethane, which generally looks nicer, more professionally, etc. Use The Steel Wool: The customers then need to use the 0000-grade steel wool and add some amount of the paste wax to it. The brown bag acts like 4000+ grit sand paper and will remove alot of roughness without scratching the finish. The finer grades are particularly useful for the delicate work of sanding between finishes (cutting back). Rubbing out a finish means working it with a mild abrasive such as pumice or steel wool. The coarsest grades can be used to remove paint, varnish or finish from wood to prepare the article for further work. The steel wool is very fine and will actually scrape off a very fine layer, leaving a silky smooth finish often referred to as a hand rubbed finish. A rubbed finish in this gloss range can be achieved by a process known in production work as “cutting and rubbing” or “wooling out.” The how-to The basic procedure is to apply the coating in sufficient film thickness to allow abrading the coating with sandpaper and steel wool, allowing it to dry thoroughly, … Give that a try. Regarding the comments about rubbing out with various methods including steel wool: I've used every combination listed and what is left is a mirror-smooth (and therefore light reflecting) finish that has micro-swirls rather than a matt/satin finish as in an off the gun finish that DCS describes. The SG sheen was nicely knocked down to a wonderful satin and baby butt smooth when I finished. Finishing sources are conflicted about whether you should use steel wool for the final dressing of a dried clear finish*. Customers then need to rub the wax loaded steel wool over the entire surface. 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