Satin Finish in the Wood Furniture Finishing

Satin is the term to name a type of fabric. Satin cloth was originally made of silk; then it had a correlation with expensive stuff. The satin term then was also used to mention the look at the wood finishing. Satin finish was referring to the finishing with a soft and less gloss finish appearance. In the earlier times, when most of the finishing was made with high gloss and a “bright” appearance, the satin finish was bringing special taste with its low gloss, softness, and natural look. 
In the past, when the top coat with the low gloss was not available, then the satin finish was quite difficult to be achieved. The shellac or varnish will always give a high-gloss film finish. To get the satin finish, we need to rub the coating to lower down the gloss. The rubbing was also required to flatten the coating surface and remove the brush mark from the coating application.

Now, when top coat with any gloss is available, then we can make the satin finish with an easier and faster process. We can use the low gloss or semi gloss top coat to make the satin finish without any rubbing process. By spray applications, we can make a finish with a medium gloss and smooth surface as the satin finish. 

table with satin finish

With the modern material and equipment, we can have some options to make the satin finish. Here are some ways to make satin finish.

• The medium gloss top coat.

Satin gloss finish refers to the sheen about 30 to 60. At this time, a wide range of top coat sheens are available. With the modern spray gun and the right material, we can make any sheen as we need. And even more, with the proper material, equipment, and application technique, we can get the smooth and even film surface with 1 shoot. If necessary, we can still polish the finishing film with oil or wax to get the smooth and soft feel.

• The rubbing process.

We can still rub the top coat to get a satin look and feel. In the past, the finisher always was rubbing the finish process to get the high-end finishing look. The traditional finishing process with shellac or varnish that is done by brush or cloth will leave the brush mark or cloth mark. The rubbing process is an important process to clean and fix the brush mark to get a smooth and even finish. Now, with the modern finishing material and equipment, we can make the even and smooth films with the spray application. But we still can do rubbing to produce a flat, even and smooth finish with special look.
The rubbing process is still the best way to make the satin look finished, even in the modern finishing era. Now, the rubbing process can ​​even be done better with the rubbing equipment and rubbing material. We can use the rubbing machine, rubbing compound, steel wool, and scotch brite to get a special look of satin finish. You see more detail in our previous article here: Rubbing and polishing to satin finish

• Waxing lacquer.

Waxing lacquer is a special NC top coat. It is a specially nc top coat that is designed to produce a wet look as the wax finish. Waxing lacquer application can generate smooth surface finishing and a wet look, and with the selection of the desired gloss, we can get a satin finish with a soft and smooth feel. Find it more at : waxing lacquer