Spatter effect for wood furniture finishing.

Spatter effect is the small drops of liquid on the finishing surface. The spatter finishing effect is used to make antique effect or to make special looked finish. The spatter effect in the antique finishing is used to mimic the dirt splattered from the insect, stain, or other small impurities. It is usually made with dark brown or black color stain to make more antique looked to the finishing. The spatter also can be used to produce a special effect finish. The spatter on the paint finish, with many different color stain can make a special finish looked that bring to the dynamic and life looked. 

spatter on antique finishing

How to make the spatter effect.

 
Spatter is made with stain application. The stain is applied in special way to make splash color on the surface. Spatter is usually applied on the sealer or top coat, when thick finish layer is already built. Spatter can be applied either at the transparent color or solid color finish. Spatter must be quite a contrast with the finishing color to get visible effects.
The spatter can be made with some different way, the principle is the stain must be splashed or sprinkle to the surface.  It can be made with the brush or spray gun. 

 brush to make spatter

1. Spatter with the brush.

Brush is simple tool and can be used to make spatter effect quite well. Dip the brush tip into a stain, and then move (shake) the brush to make the stain is splashed on the desired surface. It is very simple and easy to be done. But we cannot control the spatter effect resulted. The spatter effect obtained is usually random and not uniform in the form and size. However it is suitable to make antique effect in the antique finishing.

2. Spatter with gravity cup gun.

The gravity cup gun can produce spatter with better controlled. To make splash effect, we need to adjust the spray gun setting to splash the stain. The air pressure valve and volume of material release valve should be set at the minimum open to let, so the stain is not well atomized. The material will out form the gun in the splash but with more uniform size. We can take off the air cap of the spray gun to help splash the stain.
With the cup gun, we will be able to produce a more controlled spatter effect. By setting the cup gun, then we can produce a more uniform spatter effect. The uses of spray gun also help to direct the splash stain to the desired area. The spray gun is more flexible and controlled to produce the spatter effect in the special finish. We can make the spatter effects with many different sizes with many color stain consistently.

 gravity cup gun to make spatter

3. Spatter with texture spray gun or pressure port spray gun.

The use of brush or gravity gun to produce the spatter effect is limited to apply the stain with low viscosity. To produce a spatter effect with a viscous material then we need a tool that could spark a viscous material, i.e. pressure gun ports. Pressure port has the air pressure inside the tank that is facilitate to catapult material with high viscosity. The pressure port can be used to make effects spatter with viscous material. It can be used to spatter the base coat, paint or texture paint. Various texture effects with base coat or paint can be made. The pressure port can make splashed with the texture as well as the stain effect.

 spatter to make special finish

 The stain to make spatter effect.
 
Almost all kind of stains can be used to make the spatter effect. The pad stain is my favorite since it can be applied easy either by brush or spray gun. Pad stain on the sealer or top coat can be wiped off easily if it is considered too much. The glaze is also quite good to make spatter effect. It is easy to be applied by brush or spray gun. It also can be cleaned or wiped off if necessary, but it takes rather long time to dry. Too wet glaze is risk to sag. If we use the base coat or paint, then we need the pressure port or texture spray gun.

Spatter is usually applied on the sealer or top coat layer, before the last top coat as a final layer. If we use the pad stain or the glaze stain to make spatter, then we absolutely need to layer it with the top coat. The spatter with paint, base coat or the thinner stain is also high recommended to be layered with the top coat. The base coat or paint may be able to attach on the finish surface quite well, but the top coat is still needed to make the even gloss instead off to give more protection.