Wood Finishing
Our finishes are not the last step of our making process—they are an integral part of it, and we put as much effort and research into them as we do when we research design.
Our furniture is polished and finished almost entirely by hand. The wood is sanded with progressively finer grades of sandpaper, stained, and sealed in layers. The processes are repeated multiple times to get our signature combinations of colour and texture.
From the outset, our work with wood has been a practice in understanding how a specific species behaves under the plane, how its grain responds to stain, how humidity and temperature affect its movement over years of use. This knowledge has been acquired through a combination of experience, observation and iteration, and informs every decision we make in our workshop.
Historically, finishing was a means to a simple end—to protect the wood and make the piece presentable. The industry standard of a coat of sealer followed by a topcoat of lacquer was serviceable, but sealed the surface off from itself, leaving a barrier between the hand and the material.
Phantom Hands has deliberately moved away from that approach. Many of our finishes are waterborne, and zero, or low VOC, making them easy on the environment, our workers, and our end customers. We use hardwax oils, hydro-oils, and waterborne stains and paints that penetrate the wood rather than sit on its surface, allowing the material to breathe and age naturally.
Our furniture is polished and finished almost entirely by hand. The real-time, tactile feedback of hand-sanding and hand-application creates results that cannot be replicated by machine without loss.
