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Mat or Satin after wet sanding


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I always work with high gloss finishes with the same process.....spray/wet sand/buff and comes to high gloss...

Once i sprayed with matt and followed the same proccess and it turned out to HIGH GLOSS!

and that is unwanted....

Forgive me but i have never tried it before...so how i manage matt or satin after wet sanding??

i suppose i buff until the point i want...but is it the correct way??

please give me your lights!

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Hi. If you wet sand finer than 600 you pretty much have a matt finish. What I do for non gloss finish is wet sand to 600 and then rub with 0000 steel wool and wax. it turns out OK. Try it and see if you like it. You can always shine it more or rough it back a bit.

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Thank you for response...

There is a local luthier here who says that he sprays only and not wet sand and buff...

So the satin or matte is achieved only with his spraying skills!

is that possible????????

in every project i do there are tones of overspray and orange peel!!

am i so unskilled????

haaaa GOD!!!!

i think the steelwool and wax are the best !!!

thanks !!

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People misunderstand matte finishes.A true matte finish has a flattening agent in it that diffuses light...like silica.It will not "buff to gloss".Just because you make the surface shiny by polishing and waxing,that doesn't change the diffused clarity of the matte finish.

If you can't tell that it is matte,then you probably either have a very low matte finish or it isn't thick enough to diffuse as much as you want.

All finishes start as gloss.Flattening agents are added.

Buy "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner and read page 132...If more people owned(and bothered reading) this book there would be a lot less misinformation going around.The book even has illustrations.

Of course you can leave a bunch of tiny surface scratches to simulate a flat finish,but your skin contact will eventually gloss it up.

In other words,there are two ways to achieve the look...

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One way is to use a "normal" paint and only wet sand it up to a grit like 800-1200 or whatever. The fine scratches make it look matte, however it will end up going glossy with use or if you wax it, as Wes says. The specific "matte" paints have an additive which stops it from looking glossy by redirecting light in random directions. That is the "flattening" agent.

To address your specific techniques used, if you wax and buff a matte paint it removes the deliberately imperfect surface that the additives put in there to create the matte look.

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