I far prefer brushing or wiping on a finish as opposed to spraying, but there is one annoying drawback.

Well, I suppose anybody who regularly brushes on finishes can come up with several drawbacks (although I find them easy to work around), but I’m talking about one specific drawback. And that’s stray bristles lodging in the finish.

Again, you can work around this. Using a high-quality brush to begin with should go without saying. Thoroughly cleaning the brush with mineral spirits before use usually gets rid of most of the loose bristles. And finishing with a strong light source angled onto your work helps you spot others as you go.

And yet, you’ll still get them from time to time. Usually they can be peeled out of a dried finish and rubbed out, leaving no evidence they were there. But one kind is particularly annoying.

I just finished a small bookcase that came out great. Or so I thought until, sweeping my hand over the perfectly smooth top, detected the telltale bump of a stray bristle in the dry finish.

It was easy to lift the end of the bristle with a fingernail, but upon pulling it out – it just kept coming. And it wasn’t as stiff as a regular bristle; in fact, it was very fine and not bristle-like at all.

Darn cats! We have two, and their winter coats are coming in right now, meaning that a lot of their summer fur is floating around the house, including my shop. But as I’m working it out of the finish it suddenly occurs to me:

My cats don’t have gray hair …

A.J.