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Once the surface is prepared, I either stain with different dilutions of stain or on the surfaces to be painted with
acrylics, I use Minwax Sanding Sealer (MSS). It should be noted that MSS on bass wood gives a wonderful flesh colored
tone and you still can see the wood surface. Furthermore, it gives wonderful control of paint on the painted surfaces.
As a side note on painting with acrylics, “if you paint your acrylic onto a sheet of news print and cannot read the
print under the paint, then you probably need to dilute your paint with more water until you can read the print under the
paint.” You must also learn to use several shades of each color and learn to “dry brush” these shades
onto your object. Now when I do use water colors, I use very dilute directly on the unsealed wood. However, I
have also use water color as well as acrylics dry brushed over stain for wonderful effects. The object is that you need
to experiment and develop many techniques and have fun while you do it!! On most all surfaces that are to be stained,
I use Minwax pre-stain to treat the wood. Bix also makes a great pre-stain too. Pre-stain, allows softer woods
to take stain more uniformly. Stain is applied to wood while the pre-stain is still damp.
Sealing
Once the surfaces are stained and/or painted, I
seal with semi-gloss spray lacquer. I usually use Deft brand. I don’t use polyurethane because it takes
too long to dry. During the longer drying time, bugs or flying insects or dust has a greater opportunity to land on
the tacky surface. I use approximately 3 coats and do not sand or rub between coats. Using the spray lacquer,
these three coats will take less than 1 ½ hours or so. I use high gloss lacquer on most of my teething toys. I
believe that once dried, lacquer is one of the only surfaces that will allow a “non-toxic” condition for the final
carving. When it will be used for teething, I seldom if ever paint or stain the toy. Just several coats of the
high gloss lacquer. Then I polish the surface. Note: if it is going to be used as a toy, I never wax it!
When the final coat is completely dry, I use at least 24 hours of drying, I will polish the surface
with a brown paper bag. If by hand then crumple up a brown paper bag and buff the surface. I will also use 5 or
so layers of a heavy brown paper bag folded so the final rectangle is about 2 inches by 4 inches long. I slide this
into the split on a tapered split mandrel and run the rotary tool on slowest speed and it will do a fantastic job of polishing
the carving. So when you go to the store start asking for paper!!!!! Not Plastic!!!
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