# Microfiber Vs. Terrycloth.



## StarsOnly (Mar 17, 2009)

I'm about to start re-staining a peaked ceiling. The slats are fairly, roughly 12', and know I will have to wipe excess most likely from each board as I go since this Minwax seems to dry fairly fast.

Is using a microfiber cloth to do the wipes of excess to use instead of cut up towel? The microfiber not running the risk of leaving any stray strings like the terrycloth would.


----------



## Rick Mosher (Feb 26, 2009)

White cotton t-shirt or cloth diapers are the best. Any good paint store will sell wiping rags also.


----------



## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Stars,
I would use the t-shirt style shop rags that you can buy at the big box stores or sherwin williams. Why spend the money on microfibers when you are going to throw them away when you are done? Even if you get a piece of string stuck on the wood, you can still pluck it off even after it's dry. 
Mike Hawkins


----------



## Alan P Oliver (Dec 26, 2008)

Microfibre are most suitable for picking up dust. I have used a box load of wiping cloths bought from car body shop, they are all the same size and quality of material and inexpensive. They are ideal. Or, use lint free cotton t shirts as has already been mentioned. If your using a water based stain, you have a choice of methods of applying. Sponge, brush or even spray. I suggest you pad it on, you can get them in different sizes from your hardware store. They present a flat, even surface, and hold stain well, you could use a second pad to wipe off as you go along. 

Good luck!


----------



## mmtools (Aug 21, 2008)

The lint free T-shirt rags have always worked well for me... I found the micro-fiber to be not as absorbent as claimed.


----------



## StarsOnly (Mar 17, 2009)

Usually the only thing I use microfiber for is when I detail cars but knowing they were lint free I thought they might be good.

I did wind up trying them and it was okay, but I agree with all of you that the t-shirts are a better choice.

It's a really large area so stopping is really not an option. So it's do a plank, wipe, do a plank wipe. The wood is in such bad shape that it turned out with a lot of darker dry dry spots and the healthy nice shiny spots. So I think I'm going to have to at a later date strip it all the way down and try again.

So many years of the heat and moisture from the shower and the wood never being re-coated to protect it has really messed it up. I'll put up a couple of new pictures tomorrow. You can see how it looked after the sanding I did and some of how it looked after the staining.

Thanks to everyone for their input, I'm sure I'm going to need more.

Brian


----------



## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

mmtools said:


> The lint free T-shirt rags have always worked well for me...



Same here. I have a never ending supply.


----------

