Cherry, another finishing question

[taxpayer779]

I've just finished making a coffee table out of cherry. The top has some excellent grain and I want to show it off as much as possible. The bad news is my wife had me s-s-s-s-stain it. "American Cherry ". (Actually, it looks real nice, but there's something about staining this wood that just ain't right). Anyway, having lost that battle with the Mrs., now comes the moment of truth of putting a top coat on it. The requirements (also from the Mrs.) are:

-show off the grain

-keep as much of a satin sheen as possible

Any suggestions for the final finish?

Flame resistant suit is now deployed for having the audacity to stain this beautiful wood. But, this was a fight I wasn't going to win.

[Rob Ritch]

Try Waterlox satin. Should meet all of your requirements

[TWS]

Strip it, sand it down, put a coat of oil on it and show it to SWMBO. If she doesn't like it, replace SWMBO. TWS

[RVH]

Waterlox satin is fine, but I see better grain and calrity with Waterlox original. With either, you can adjust the sheen to the level you want with steel wool and minwax paste wax,

[SonomaProducts.com]

I think staining it is fine. You probably want to put some Tung oil on first to hep pop that grain a bit more. I don't think you can put a water finish over that though.

I would do hand wiped poly finish. Just get some oil based gloss poly. Mix it 50% with mineral spirits. Apply with a foam brush and wipe down with a smooth lint free rag. I'd do 2 coats. Then super light hand sand, or even wet sand with 400 or 600. Apply final coat. Apply wax with 0000 steel wool and then buf to the sheen you want.

Of course try on samples that are stanied and sanded the same as the real piece to start.

[Larry Jaques]

On 14 Jan 2005 08:27:22 -0800, the inscrutable "Rob Ritch" spake:

...once deglossed with 0000 steel wool and paste wax. (Satin is still waaaaay too shiny for my tastes, so I use Original and degloss from there.)

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[toller]

Oil based stain is just oil with pigment. What would be the point of putting unpigmented oil on first?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

So his wife will say, "Oh, that's beautiful" and he won't have to put the stain on???

[Owen Lawrence]

You stained cherry, so it's already finished.

Build another table without staining it and ask the question again.

- Owen -

[nospambob]