Observations on finishing furniture

• No matter how many tools you own, you always need at least one more to complete any new project.
• Neither Home Depot nor Lowe's ever has all the items you need to complete a project.
• A 1.5-inch brush fits through the neck of a Bertolli's spaghetti sauce jar. A 2-inch brush doesn't.
• Sandpaper works better if you insert it in the sanding block with the rough side out.
• Wiping off a gel stain generates a lot of rags that are said to be prone to spontaneously combusting.

• A quart of shellac doesn't go nearly as far as you would expect. Next time, buy a gallon.
  
• Don't use a brush previously used for white latex paint to apply shellac. When you clean it in denatured alcohol, it softens any paint residue, which results in a lot of little white flecks in the shellac.
• A coat of gel stain takes 8-10 hours to dry; a coat of shellac, 45 minutes; and a coat of water-based poly, 3 hours.
• Finishing both sides of a shelf takes two applications of gel stain, four of shellac, and four of poly.
• 8 feet x 42 inches x 16 inches of unfinished bookcase = one shitload of unfinished surface area.
• Two unfinished bookcases = two shitloads of unfinished surface area.
  
• Two unfinished bookcases in a one-car garage preclude parking a car in said garage. Especially when augmented by a stack of eight flat-pack kitchen cabinets.