Choice of wood finish?

[Phil_S]

OK, this isn't amp related. It's about a table, but it could easily be about a head cab. On that note, I'll ask for your indulgence. I built a coffee table of walnut and maple. It is about 20" x 20" x 20" (20" =~ 51 cm for some of us.) This is meant as a prototype for a dining room table. I found out I still have much to learn. On to the question.

I'm not sure I want to coat it with polyurethane. Poly is basically plastic. I don't think it is a great looking finish. I want something to enhance the look of it. It's going to be used as a coffee table, so it needs to have a durable finish. <Image. Wife places her mug of hot tea on it. Husband knows to keep his mouth shut.> What, besides poly can I use? I know wax is out. I'm doubtful an oil finish, like Danish oil, will stand up. Do they still make old school varnish and will it be any better than poly? I'd be grateful for a bit of advice or your opinions.

Thanks.

[martin manning]

Check this stuff out: https://www.waterlox.com/original

[TUBEDUDE]

Maybe a low viscosity superglue. (Sorry lowside memory failure will not let me access the chem name.) Or long set epoxy maybe. Try calling Westside or check woodworking magazine sites? I got nuttin'.

[Tony Bones]

Poly doesn't have to look bad. If you have some scraps of wood left over to experiment with, try applying semi-gloss poly (not glossy) in thin coats with 0000 steel wool. Even with several thin coats it still won't look like a layer of plastic. Give it a try. You might be surprised.

[pompeiisneaks]

If you hate yourself you could do that old school french lacquer I can't remember the name of, but requires you to layer like 10 or 12 layers by hand and is super amazingly hard to do, and looks amazing

~Phil

[martin manning]

French Polish? It’s shellac-based, and not very durable, easily marked by water or alcohol spills.

[pompeiisneaks]

Yeah that's it. I know it's very touchy too but looks amazing. Look here:




It's a bit long, but if you skip to the end, you can see how it looks.


~Phil

[xtian]

Yeah, man! Look at my thread on French polish:

https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30075

Only recommended if you never want to put anything on the table...

[xtian]

OTOH, poly is what they put on my parquet floors. Simple, thin, very durable.

[pompeiisneaks]

Yeah, man! Look at my thread on French polish:

https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30075

Only recommended if you never want to put anything on the table...

That's exactly where I remembered it from, but somehow thought it was somewhere else I'd heard of it lol.

Thanks

~Phil

[Phil_S]

Well, you never can tell at TAG if a conversation will go up, down, sideways, or all of them. Thanks to all of you for your contributions.

I enjoyed the discussion of French polish. IMO, this is the artful finish for an expensive violin and possibly a high end guitar. No, I'm not going through that. Also, it's a soft finish, not what I'm looking for, though, for looks, it is hard to beat.

I appreciated the suggestion to look again at poly. Poly is cheap and it's got some clear advantages, like being easy to apply. I don't like the smell of the oil based, and it can have a long cure time. the water based stuff isn't as hard. I'm not sure how hard "hard" really is or isn't.

Shellac seems like the wrong stuff in this instance.

It is the Walnut top that is the centerpiece and I'd like it to look as good as possible. The Walnut began as a cut off from a table that the guy in the wood store was building. The blank was bandsawn, about 10" x 21" x 2+". I asked for resaw into two ~1"boards, but it turns out he doesn't have a proper bandsaw to do that (or at least not at the store.) I ran it through the table saw around the edges and finished the resaw with an old fashioned hand saw. It worked surprisingly well, but there was a cup on one side and a belly on the other, so I had no choice but to run it through the thickness planer. This is a long way of saying, I used every bit of it except for maybe 1/4" cut off at the edges for cleanup. No scraps. I only get one chance.

Martin's suggestion for Waterlox pointed me to the research I wasn't able to do successfully before. Thank you, Martin. It turns out there are about 5 or 6 real serious varnish products discussed on the internet. They are made with either phenolic resin or alkyd resin. Phenolic tends to be yellow and will darken with age. Alkyd tends to be more clear. The resin might be mixed with a few different things, like oil (i.e., tung oil), or urthane, or other stuff. Waterlox is the phenolic/oil type. Epiphanes uses both resins with tung oil. Cabot 8000 series seems to be out of production. Behlen Rockhard is an urthane/alkyd varnish. General Finishes make an oil/urthane product, not sure what resin. User ratings indicate that some of these are difficult to apply well. If you live in California, you can't get any of this stuff, except maybe in San Diego for some odd reason.

Anyhow, I think I know what the choices are. I'll mull this over.

[cbass]

Sherwin Williams post catalysed lacquer about 30 bucks for a gallon. Nearly as tough as poly but doesn't look like plastic plus you can put on several coats one day and use the table the next. You can use shellac as a sealer for some color if you want r some BLO to enhance the grain just have to let it dry several dys.I've done just about all the finishes mentioned and that's what I would use unless it was like a kitchen table or something that gets daily abuse then I would probably go with a conversion varnish.

[katopan]

After some research for a recent speaker cab build, I was reading about how wiping varnish was just standard oil based poly varnish "watered down" with mineral spirits. After a bit of experimentation I ended up with a 50/50 mix just in a glass jar. I'll never go back to anything else! I painted it on with a brush rather than wiping it on. I found that compared to straight varnish, it didn't leave brush marks (thinner so it self levels), brushed on in really thin coats so it didn't have that 'wrapped in plastic' look at all, thinner actually didn't run like it does applied thick, and with the right sanding prep beforehand a few coats gave a level high gloss finish without any further work. The really thin coats also dried very quickly, so I was able to recoat in about an hour in mild ambient temperature. To me it was the first time I'd got a more natural looking finish while keeping the poly varnish durability.

https://sites.google.com/site/chosenaud ... ts/1x10cab

[ER]

For walnut, french polish is the way to go. You shouldn't set hot or cold drinks or cigarettes on your amp anyways, if you need to use an amp like a booth at mcdonalds, use a coaster, or stick to tolex.

A can of Zinsser amber shellac (if you don't have sapwood clear is fine), olive oil from my kitchen cupboard, some 0000 steel wool, a couple old cotton rags, and an afternoon of elbow grease. Gets better with age and touches up with the same;

[cbass]

i forget that folks in the city may not be able to spray lacquer. If i was in that situation and wanted a durable finish. Id use bona floor finish . Rub it down with BLO let it dry a few days then use dewaxed shellac (zinnsers seal coat is dewaxed thin it with alcohol) for a sealer to give some color.
The bona finish is water based product but it has some burn in time before it cures . meaning it will melt into the previous coat kinda like lacquer. It's easy to work with drys to the touch reasonably fast and is a very tpugh finish.