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Need a little help folks! I've just attempted for the 3rd time to finish a rusticated pipe and I am bombing! Maybe my steps are off. After rustication, I stained with black then after lighting it, moved to a brown stain. Used DNA to try and bring my brown stain out. I read on past threads that sanding or buffing isn't the way to go on the textured pipe (y'all help me if I have misread this). At this point my pipe looks just dusty black with small hints of brown. I tried to wax it but just makes the top shiny and the black indented areas dustier. I know everyone has their way, but would love some help on the basic steps of finishing a rusticated pipe!

What look are you seeking? Staining brown after black is just a mess in my mind.

Put something shiny on the pipe and see how it looks. Shellac works.

I'm not sure what look I'm going for. I rusticated with a nail tool. I just want to finish a rusticated!!! The last one i did looked so bad I just sanded it down and am re rusticating it. Would love some steps if anyone is willing to share!

That's chocolate stain and a thin coat of shellac.

That's the exact look I'm trying for!! Looks great. So you stained w Chocolate Fiebings, then did nothing else but put a layer of Shellac on it?! No light sanding, buffing, or wax?

Right.

You can also try a toothbrush on the pipe you have, and polish up the parts that look gray or fuzzy now... they just have wax sitting on the surface probably. So that's a whole nother approach - take a paste wax and use a toothbrush to scrub it up. But the ordinary progression of tripoli and waxing and buffing wheels is right out.

Thanks man! I have already sanded it and re tooled the briar. Just waiting on me to start finishing it again!

Questions about Shellac:
Do you use "Lowes" shellac cut or do you cut it down?
I've been applying shellac with a pipe cleaner. Is this the best applicator?

Don't apply shellac with a pipe cleaner. You'll get fuzz all over. The zinsser brand shellac thinned with some DNA is just fine. I apply shellac with brushes and they can be cleaned afterwards with mineral spirits.

Thanks Jeremiah! Do you usually do half zinsser half DNA?

I apply with a pipe cleaner. I must have better ones than Jeremiah.

You can put it on with a brush, just about anything on these pipes.

You want it fairly thin, and a couple coats of too thin is better than one coat of too thick.

I'm not an expert on proportions. I just try it out on scraps till I get what I want. It's probably pretty close to 50/50 for me.

Ok, I rusticated a portion on an old mess up pipe. This is 1 coat of chocolate stain on a nail tool rustication. Then I cut the shellac half and half and did 1 coat applying several passes. Thoughts?

The surface has been so worked that it is fuzzy. Nothing short of polyurethane gel will make it shiny.

Try hitting that with a nylon bristle wheel and report back.

So you are saying that my rustication is too rough?

Don't have nylon wheel! I have a wire brush. Can I accomplish the same thing?

Do you run your rusticated pipe with the nylon wheel after you rusticate until it's smooth before staining?

Just exactly what you do is up to you, there's no one method here, just as there's no "here's the only tool to use".


Wire brush is a great idea. Knock off the fuzz, dull out any parts of the texture that are sharp.

Ok! So I hit my texture pretty good with a wire brush and then changed my shellac mixture to 2 to 3 ratio and got a better result. Still have some dusty spots but I can work on that. Any other thoughts?!

After the shellac cures, is this method a finished product? Any other suggestions?! I do appreciate the help y'all!

I consider it done when the coating is even and it's as shiny (or not) as I want. It need no further waxing or anything, though in some cases you wind up doing so (mixing smooth and blasted areas for example).

When I shellac blasted pipes, I wipe off the excess shellac from the smooth areas and wait till everything dries and then buff just the smooth spots. The main thing is to not buff while the shellac is drying or tacky. Otherwise, you'll end up with fuzz stuck all over everything.

I put carnauba on top of that with a rotating bristle wheel.
(Apply carnauba with bristle wheel, melt the excess carefully with a heat gun, shine up with bristle wheel without any carnauba on it).

Looks like you're making some progress. Listen to what these guys are saying, and keep experimenting until you find a look that you like and looks good. That last pic looks promising.