Note: as you see, Puckman wasn't looking for drawer slide lube, but a wood protectant. BUT.... reading the heading about applying poly to a drawer slide, it could easily be seen how to misinterpret. You did better than I did, I was thinking he was going to shoot metal slides with poly to prevent rust!
I always shoot something in the drawers. One mil of finish no matter what it is that is properly cured will have outgassed all it can. The key is to use hotter finishes and get away from the slow dry polys, varnishes, long oils, BLO, shellac, and on and on.
Get a hot finish, spray a dust coat, let it dry. Remember, I refinish in people's houses while they are in the house. I use the hottest finishes I can get, and almost all the odor is gone in a day. If not, certainly in two. People smell too much solvent because the rooms (kitchen for example) isn't properly sealed off before spraying and the gasses get out into the house, are picked up by the A/C, and distributed throughout the home.
I don't turn over raw wood to my clients. I like to provide them with cleanable (as in the inside of a drawer, not necessarily durable) finish that has a finished look to it. They really aren't interested in any kind of "authenticity", or making sure that I follow any traditions they may have heard of. They know it isn't as durable as the faces and doors, but still a bit more cleanable than raw wood.
Personally, with the piss poor quality of materials we have been seeing and using for the last 10 years, I consider not just a question of a better finished product, but self defense. Since we don't know what is in the core of the plywoods we use these days, we don't know how it was stored, we don't know them moisture content of the wood when it was used, and we don't the actual glues or woods used in plywoods, it is cheap insurance. Finsihing the drawers in the inside with a dust coat takes minutes, much more than fixing a wracked drawer.
Additionally, with the advent of prefinished plywood, folks are now used to going to the home stores, cabinet showrooms, etc., and they see that the insides are finished and expect the same from me. Once again, they aren't interested in a lesson on traditional finishes and woodworking. They want what everyone else has.
To finish or not to finish on a home project is different, and I tend to think of questions as they reflect on my work, not as someone's hobby. Although I would still seal both sides, if nothing more than with a dust coat or "wash" coat of hot finish, I think raw wood or wax is a personal preference.
Now that depends on the wax, eh? Some of the finishing waxes are not that slick, and most are kind of brittle. Most have silicones (NEVER on wood... NEVER!) synthetic waxes, all manner of petroleum carriers, with a little of carnauba thrown in for authenticity.
I don't consider wax a finish. It isn't water resistant, humidity resistant, heat resistant, abrasion resistant, isn't very cleanable, and after a while it breaks down all by itself.
(So do other finishes, but not nearly as rapidly.)
Now for the guy that says "hey, it's easily repaired, and I don't mind renewing the finish every couple of years on the weekend" it might just fit the bill. Once the carriers leave, you are only left with the thinnest coat of estherized manufactured resins, some silicone residue, and maybe some carnauba, maybe some beeswax. You know, stuff that easily carves with your fingernail.
Not for me. The only thing I see good about wax is that it is easy to apply.
Before anyone gets upset, remember, it's just my opinion, so take it for what you paid for it.
*SNIP* of a sad experienceMe neither. Here's my EA story. I was doing some work at a house where they had a whole house of EA furniture. After all, they give you free decorating advice after a certain amount of money is spent. They had an EA lamp table they had spent something like $900 on, and they wanted to change the color of the top only.
Well, says Motormouth (read: Robert) that shouldn't be a problem. It had a fairly complex diamond pattern of different kinds of wood underneath a heavy dark spray of stain, topped with -WAX!!- (just kidding... it was some kind if thin lacquer).
Quoted them a price and off we went. I put some BIX on it and it went through that finish like it wasn't there. ( Maybe it was wax afterall.... ;^) )
It also went through the wood diamond pattern and raised it up. I was horrified as I thought I had ruined the little wood inset. Nope.. not at all. I had ruined the the "wood", actually paper, applique.
In a strange twist of fate, the clients weren't mad at me. They were really pissed off at EA since they had been told their furniture was "solid wood". I was prepared to take a real beating, but they took a different tact altogether and told me that they would have never asked me to try to refinish the top if they had known it was only paper.
They were really mad at EA and wrote them some really nasty letters but nothing came of it.
$900 for a lamp table made of a mishmash of hard(er) woods with a paper decal on it. Man am I in the wrong business!
Robert
PS: Like that Ruskin quote a lot. Hadn't seen it in a long while, but boy is it a keeper.