UNDERSTANDING WOOD FINISHING by BOB FLEXNER

• Bob Flexner has been writing & teaching wood finishing for 18 years.
• Completely updated second edition of UNDERSTANDING WOOD FINISHING.
• The most practical, comprehensive book on finishing ever published.

Very readable and very useful:
I know little about finishing and I can rarely make sense of the products I see in the store, or even of the products I see categorized online. Turns out, it's not just me. In a surprisingly readable work, Flexner systematically covers the essentials of finishing, taking the reader past the marketing-speak and poor product instructions, and laying out the basic finishing approaches, tradeoffs, and tools. As just one example, I was planning on using a particular MinWax finish which calls for a next coat within two hours. Fleener actually shows this particular finish, what happens if you follow the (incorrect) instructions, what happens if you wait longer, and why it works like that. He presents many, many options, but at the same time, lays out some basic techniques for the beginner. I read the book from start to finish, skipping just a very few parts, but the book is written so you can start at pretty much any chapter; the text has many embedded references so that you can get more details on related topics. In short, this is just a very readable and useful book. I'm so glad I got it.

Highly recommend:
Flexner's book explains in detail the different finishing options along with their characteristics. He also debunks all the old myths and hype while giving the reader the straight story on wood finishing. Get this book if you work with wood, you'll be glad you did.

Finishing:
if you are interested in finishing this is the only book you need. don't look any further just by this book you can think me later :-),,,

The most helpful book on this subject I have seen:
This book has lots of helpful info that not only tells you what finishes to use in your circumstances but how different finishes work, where you can go wrong and how to repair finish problems. He debunks a lot of popular myths and tells you why they are wrong. My facilities coworker who is a whiz at finish carpentry has borrowed this book so many times I've decided to get him his own copy. If you have ever wondered which finish to use and why...this book is for you.