Button polish or teak oil for stair rail?

I've installed a couple of stair handrails in my house. They are made of pine which I have stained. What would be the most suitable finish: button polish, or teak oil or is the difference insignificant?

I tried using something called Antique Oil from B&Q but it didn't go off properly for some reason. It ended up drying to a kind of waxy finish that I could scratch away with a finger nail, and that was after about a month of drying. I ened up removing it all. Maybe it was past its use-by date or something.

Thank you, Al

Reply to
AL_n
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Best finish is "Patina", a gel polyurethane. Screwfix used to have it, now I have to buy it in Lancashire, where they make it.

Otherwise a danish oil (an oil varnish blend) will work pretty well, as a compromise between a hardened film-forming oil and a varnish.

Shellac (your button polish) is too shiny & slippery for grip on a handrail.

Teak oil is a non film-forming oil - i.e. one that sinks right in. Doesn't look too bad in some cases, but it will only last at all on a good tropical hardwood. On softwood, even on most UK hardwoods, there's not enough of a robust surface to it. It's also a rip-off price! If you want oil (and it's not justified on pine, even if your handrails are actually pine rather than the more likely hemlock or spruce) then a commecially blend tung oil base is a better starting point. Try Liberon's "Finishing Oil".

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Varnish. You will need to et the stuff you previously applied off first though.

Some of the stuff you mention is intended to soak into timber. If it can't soak in, it won'tdry.

Reply to
harryagain

"harryagain" wrote in news:iup1r7$178$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

That explains the problem. I initially applied some acrylic spray laquer, which I ran out of, and then applied the Antique oil, thinking "Well, it's just a kind of thin varnish, so why not?"

You live and learn! I will start again from scratch.

Thanks also to Andy for the Tung oil suggestion.

Al

Reply to
AL_n

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