I have been working on the bed wood again. I came up with a variant of the black with silver grain highlight. Right now, I am trying to understand if this technique will actually accept an automotive clear coat. I wasn't super happy with the 2 part clear epoxy. This finish was nice and smooth, but it looked a little on the yellow instead of crystal clear, which did not look good over the silver. Here is the new color I tried.
I picked the better of these two samples and I made another sample of the black with silver grain to use for the clear coat test. For the clear coat, I decided on House of Color. After two coats, the clear was absorbed by the wood. The finished is shiny but not smooth.
After two more coats of clear, the surface is now very shiny but still not completely smooth.
After one more coat, the surface is now very smooth. One more coat would ideal, but it will need to be wet sanded first. Will let this dry over the weekend. These turned out as good as I hoped. However, I think the color needs to be somewhere between these two, with less contrast. I'll work on that over this weekend.
