Trento Carotti is a consultant with extensive experience in both formulating and applying wood coatings. He has served as R&D lab researcher and R&D director for SAYERLACK S.p.a. (now Arch Coatings, a subsidiary of ARCH Chemicals) and R&D director for Milesi S.p.a. in Italy. He can be reached at trentocarotti@msn.com.
Wood finishing technologies must take into account the nature and structure of a substrate that, by definition, is a “living material.” The first step in wood finishing is always drying the wood to reduce the water content from 60-70% to 15-20%, a moisture content that is in balance with the atmosphere’s moisture.