Paints and Woods – The Best “Match”

I wanted to know which paints match which woods. I tested 6 paints and 5 woods this time. Which one do you like?

So what the differences?

There are many paints at stores. Don’t you think which one is better or what the difference is? That is exactly why I chose these paints. I couldn’t tell which one matched which one.

Today’s goal is to bring out the best in woods. Teak and walnut are fine woods and they are used for furniture. I wanted to know which paints bring out the best in these woods. I have also tested Japanese beech. It is used for toys because it has flavor of soft and feminine. I wanted to know how to bring out the flavor. I tested SPF and lauan too. They are used as building materials rather than material as furniture or toy, but I wanted to find paints suitable for them.They made really good “matches” and some of them were unexpected to me. Take a look. 😉

These are my goals of wood painting. These photos are from my previous post “Beginner’s oil-finishing with Watco”.

My Goal 1

My Goal 1

By the way, the chair is named “Barcelona chair” designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe whom I didn’t know when I posted the previous post.

My Goal 2

My Goal 2

Watco Natural Danish Oil Finish

This is one of the paints most famous paint in this blog.

Watco W-01 Natural

Watco W-01 Natural

There are several colors. I chose natural for today’s theme. See “Beginner’s oil-finishing with Watco” for how to paint.

Kinuka (キヌカ)

Kinuka is a paint made from rice.

Kinuka

Kinuka

Basically Kinuka is a wood finishing oil like Watco.

  Watco Kinuka
Colors 10 and above 1
Smell Strong (gone in 10 days) None
Viscosity A bit sticky A bit sticky
Tools to paint Oil paint brushes and waste cloth wastes
Spontaneous Yes No
Stimulus to skin Not mentioned Safety proved by research
Painting times 2 1

Kinuka’s advantage is its easiness. You can finish oil without learning paint.

Spontaneous sounds scarily a bit. If you spilt Watco on your clothes accidentally, you may wash it. What happens if the laundry machine can’t wash enough and you put your clothes into the dryer? It may burn. This is just my imagination, and I don’t know any accidents like this though.

Osmo Wood Wax High Solid Clear 3101

Osmo 3101 Normal Clear

Osmo 3101 Normal Clear

This is a paint not only for woodcraft lover but also professional. See “How to paint Osmo – with sample photos”.

Washin Clear Lacquer

I tested lacquer which was in my mind before because I couldn’t tell the difference between lacquer and varnish. Actually I couldn’t tell the difference between lacquer, thinner and spray. LOL

Washin Clear Lacquer

Washin Clear Lacquer

Difference between Lacquer and Varnish

How to paint lacquer is the same as varnish, but tools you need are different.

  water-based urethane varnish Lacquer
Viscosity A bit syrupy Syrupy
Brush Varnish paint brushes Oil paint brushes
Liquid to dilute Tap water Lacquer thinner
How to paint Put on several layers Put on several layers
Sealer Not necessary always Should be necessary
How to wash brushes Wash with tap water Wash with lacquer thinner
Time to dry up 2 hours 1 hour

I’ll write about lacquer thinner in the future.

I couldn’t tell the purpose of using lacquer. What reason is lacquer used for? I thought about it and these are my answer.

  • Shorten waiting time
    Shorter waiting time is better to make products faster.
  • Reproduce old atmosphere
    Lacquer was used mainly in old ages. This means lacquer is necessary when you reproduce old furniture. According to Wikipedia, lacquer is used from BC 7,000 to 1950. Since then urethane is used. Urethane is a recent material.
  • Acoustic absorption is different from varnish
    Paint on musical instruments affects to sound. Lacquer and varnish should make different changes. There are some kinds of lacquers. If you are interested in them, search with “Shellac”. The ingredient is amazing 😉

Washin water-based urethane varnish

Washin Urethane Varnish

Washin Urethane Varnish

These are varnish since I started to paint. They are very easy to use. See “How to paint stain and water-based urethane varnish” for detail.

Asahipen Water-based High Endurance Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish

Pre-mixing Urethane Varnis

Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish

Pre-mixing urethane varnish was in my mind since I started to think of making a table. To make a table, I need a strong paint.

Asahipen’s water-based pre-mixing urethane varnish can be painted easier than Kigatame Ace. This paint is available at hardware stores and Tokyo Hands. Washin is selling water-based pre-mixing urethane varnish too, but I didn’t like samples at the store. They looked like plastic or tables in the fast food restaurants, which could be good and bad. (Strong but less elegant) This was why I tried Kigatame Ace, but Asahipen’s water-based pre-mixing urethane varnish is easier and enough strong.

Inside the box and how to paint

Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish

Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish

Mix the basis and the hardener at the ration of 5:1 to make varnish. The varnish looks like Washin’s varnish, and you can paint just in the same way.

There are two bottles of hardener, but they are same. The container labeled “shaker” is for mixing the basis and the hardener. The instruction says hardener has to be used a time. Because I didn’t use that much, I used a pipette as always. It was 3 months ago and the hardener is still fine.

Kigatame Ace

Kigatame Ace

Kigatame Ace

This is a paint used when professionals maintain national treasure and on dishes in publicschools. See “How to use Kigatame Ace with sample photos” for detail.

Woods

I tested the paints on these 5 kinds of woods.

SPF

SPF

SPF

This is sold at hardware stores very often.SPF stands for spruce, pine and fir. They are mixed and named SPF because they are very similar. See “A total beginner started to learn paintings for woodworking” for detail.

Japanese Beech

Japanese Beech

Japanese Beech

This wood has flavor of soft and feminine, and very well used for furniture of north Europe. Toys are also often made with this wood.

Red Lauan

Red Lauan

Red Lauan

Like SPF, this wood is sold at hardware stores. In Japan, they are called veneer, veneer board and plywood, so I couldn’t tell the difference.

Name Meaning
Veneer A slice of wood. Veneer is pasted on the object so that it looks like made of wood.
Plywood A board made of sliced pieces of wood. Lauan and tilia are often used.Plywood can be bent easier. It also protects wood from being wrapped or cracked.I thought the reason to make plywood was because they were trying to reduce the cost. I’m not sure if it is true or not.
Veneer Board A board with a slice of wood pasted. In Japan, this word was   mistranslated and means plywood.

By the way, the one I’m calling “red lauan” is actually “white lauan”. I call white lauan which has darker color “red lauan” because the results of painting are very different. The academically classified “red lauan” is seldom distributed.

Teak

Teak

Teak

Teak is one of the 3 world’s precious woods. (I don’t know if this is true or not.) This wood is famous for its anti abrasion. If you put this outside to be exposed to rain for long time, the quality doesn’t change. The surface is coated with material like wax. This wood is used for making furniture.

Walnut

Walnut

Walnut

Walnut is also one of the 3 world’s precious woods. The color is slight purple, but it changes into brown. This wood has anti abrasion too, and used for furniture.

By the way, the last one of the 3 world’s precious woods is mahogany.

Mahogany

Mahogany

Its appearance is not so far from lauan. 😯 I would like to paint in the future. Which paint do you think better?

Test Results

There were many matches and unmatches.

  Watco Natural Danish Oil Finish Kinuka Osmo Wood Wax High Solid Clear 3101 Washin Clear Lacquer Washin water-based urethane varnish Washin water-based urethane varnish anti gross Asahipen Water-based High Endurance Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish Kigatame Ace
SPF × × × × × × × ×
Japanese Beech ×
Red Lauan × × × × ×
Teak × × ×
Walnut × × ×

This is what I thought about every paint.

Paint Skill Smell Effort to prepare and put away Toughness Layers to paint Price
Watco Natural Danish Oil Finish × 2 JPY 333 / USD3.02
Kinuka 1 JPY 150 / USD 1.36
Osmo Wood Wax High Solid Clear 3101 1 JPY 533/USD 4.85
Washin Clear Lacquer × × × × 3 JPY 692 / USD 6.29 (*1)
Washin water-based urethane varnish × 3 JPY 360 / USD 3.27 (*1)
Asahipen Water-based High Endurance Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish 2 JPY 2382 / USD 21.65
Kigatame Ace × × × 3 JPY 1130 to 2260 / USD 10.27 to 20.54 (※2)

The left 4 categories are just my opinion. “Layers to paint” is from manufactures’ instruction. “Price“ is the cost to finish 1m2 (to make layers shown in the list) of wood. I used store prices when I bought those paints. Currency rate is USD 1 = JPY110.

*1 The price includes sanding sealer for the 1st layer.

*2 Both liquid A and liquid E are reflected to the price. Because I have used 30% of liquid A and 16% of liquid B, I added the half price of liquid E to Kigatame Ace. The amount of usage depends on wood.

The table continues.

Paint Good Bad
Watco Natural Danish Oil Finish Fine woods get more attractive White woods grow yellowish (*4)
Kinuka Easy to paing No variety of colors
Osmo Wood Wax High Solid Clear 3101 Fine woods get more attractive Paint remains a little in vessels
Washin Clear Lacquer None (*5) Hard to paint
Washin water-based urethane varnish Easy to paing less elegant and cheap quality (*6)
Asahipen Water-based High Endurance Pre-mixing Urethane Varnish Easy to paing Expensive
Kigatame Ace Fine woods get more attractive
Tough
Hard to paint
Expensive

*3 Watco has “White” in its selection. Use it to avoid this.

*4 The reason why they still sell lacquer is written already 😉

*5 The paint can go very good with cheap woods like SPF and red lauan 😉

SPF

None of paints are good 🙁 If you still need to paint, use Washin water-based urethane varnish and pour stain. See “How to paint stain and water-based urethane varnish”.

SPF Original

SPF Original

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

Watco grows yellowish. The color looks exactly the oil was absorbed.

Kinuka doesn’t change the color, which I was surprised.

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

Osmo became stronger than I thought. The the surface became harder than Pre-mixing Urethane. The color is natural and the touch is smooth.

About Lacquer – the result is exactly the same as urethane varnish.

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

The left one reflects light, but the right one is trying not to reflect. The left one is the last-weekend-I-tried-to-paint quality.

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

I wished I could have hardened SPF if I used these paints. You can leave marks very easily if you scratch with your nails.

Reflection

I tested how much the paints reflect light. I sorted in the order less reflection.

SPF Reflection Watco

SPF Reflection Watco

SPF Reflection Original

SPF Reflection Original

SPF Reflection Kinuka

SPF Reflection Kinuka

SPF Reflection Osmo

SPF Reflection Osmo

SPF Reflection Pre-mixing Urethane

SPF Reflection Pre-mixing Urethane

SPF Reflection Washin Varnish Anti Gloss

SPF Reflection Washin Varnish Anti Gloss

SPF Reflection Kigatame

SPF Reflection Kigatame

SPF Reflection Washin Varnish

SPF Reflection Washin Varnish

SPF Reflection Lacquer

SPF Reflection Lacquer

Japanese Beech

All except Watco became natural.

Japanese Beech Original

Japanese Beech Original

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

Watco grows yellowish except the color, these two paints look same. If you scratch with your nail, the mark remains only if you…

  • scratch or press very hard
  • light up intentionally
  • watch very close

at the same time.

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

Osmo became darker and smoother than Watco and Kinuka. Its toughness is the same.

Lacquer reflects light very much. The paint gives us obvious impression that the wood is painted. You can mark, but not that much.

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

They look like plastic, but you can leave nail marks easily.

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

Both paints are so strong that I couldn’t leave any marks with my nail. As you can see, Kigatame Ace became dark.

Red Lauan

Red Lauan Original

Red Lauan Original

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

Watco is yellowish too. Kinuka left some vessels (the dark lines to horizontal directions), so some vessels are remain uncolored.

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

Osmo has also left some vessels. The color is more elegant than Watco and Kinuka.

Lacquer came out better than I expected. I can make nail marks on the surface, but they are not remarkable because there are vessels and color is dark.

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

There are many vessels uncolored. The color is less contrast.

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

The color of Pre-mixing Urethane is similar to Water-based urethane varnish, and doesn’t look good. Kigatame Ace looks good, but I would choose Osmo this time.

I couldn’t leave nail marks on both paints.

Teak

Teak Original

Teak Original

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

Both look just great, and I couldn’t make any nail marks. Teak is known as hard wood, but I couldn’t imagine this hard.

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

Osmo look very similar to Watco and Kinuka. It is hard to tell the difference. One thing I’m disappointed is that Osmo sticks in the vessels and harden in white.

Painting of lacquer was very difficult. Even it is very sticky, I had to paint thin. I think lacquer has to be painted again and again. I should have used spray if I have. Nail marks can be left if I scratch hard.

I couldn’t paint and gave up! Sorry!

Lacquer on Teak

Lacquer on Teak

 

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Both paints are less vivid. They spoiled the taste of teak. Nail marks can be left easily too.

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

The color of pre-mixing urethane is between water-based urethane varnish and Kigatame Ace. I could leave nail marks a little bit if I scratched very hardly

The result of Kigatame Ace is the best. the color is so beautiful and its surface is very strong.I couldn’t leave any nail marks. I can use this when I paint furniture.

Walnut

Walnut Original

Walnut Original

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

[Left] Watco [Right] Kinuka

Both paints are very nice like teak. The color is slight different. If I scratch Kinuka with my nail, I could leave white lines of reflections. What I was surprised was if I scratched with my fingers, the white reflections disappeared. It is interesting, isn’t it?

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

[Left] Osmo [Right] Lacquer

The color of Osmo is conservative. Because walnut is dark, this is recommended to people who don’t like dark color. The paint is left in the vessels too.

The color of lacquer was beautiful. The paint was uneven. I wish I could paint well. Like teak, I could leave marks if I scratched hardly.

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

Water-based urethane varnish [Left] gross [Right] anti gross

I have the same impression as teak. Both are flat and easily marked.

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

[Left] Pre-mixing Urethane [Right] Kigatame Ace

I have the same impression as teak. The color of Kigatame Ace is just beautiful. I will definitely make something from teak or walnut with this paint.

 

If you are interested in this post, check all posts of “Painting”. For example, I posted these articles.

  • The beginner is oil-finishing with Watco
    I found Watco by chance in the store. I thought the word “oil finish” sounds like craftsman-like, and something craftsman-like would make goods better, which was a lighthearted attitude.
  • How to paint stain and water-based urethane varnish
    Today I will show you how to apply polishing powder, and how to paint stain. I tried to explain the steps and points with samples as many as possible.
  • How to paint Osmo – with sample photos
    I have painted Washin water-based urethane varnish and Watco oil finishes, but there is one paint I hadn’t tryed – Osmo. The reason is simple. They are expensive! I paid to know why.
  • How to paint Kigatame Ace
    Have you heard a paint named “Kigatame Ace”? This paint is used not only for DIY lovers but also professionals who maintain cultural properties.

This post is also available in: Japanese

Leave a Reply

Your comment will be sent to me via e-mail so that I don't miss it. Required fields are marked *