A friend has an OLD walnut table that had a very badly damaged lacquer finish. The only way to fix it was to strip it down to the bare wood and now I need to re-finish it.
Since it was finished once, the pores are already filled and it won't really take stain.
I have worked out and tested a scheme to do the job. It works and has a highly polished finish. However, his wife has expressed a desire for a finish that is not highly polished. Here is what I have done so far (on a test piece of wood)
1) I found that using just finish coats created a muddy and dark finish. I started over and applied a coat of "light golden oak" dye and rubbed it out pretty hard. This gave the a nice lightened orange tone 2) I followed that with a sealer coat of amber shellac. 3) Applied 5 coats of water borne lacquer. 4) sanded up to 2000 grit. 5) used liquid car polishing compound 6) applied 2 coats of waxThe result is nice highly polished finish. The dye gave the finish a lot of "life". The only negative is that a finger nail can make an impression in the surface. Is that normal, or did I put the lacquer on too heavy. ( The test was done with a brush. The table will be sprayed and I will be able to control the thickness better.)
The friend's wife does not desire a highly polished finish. How do I get there from here? I have been putting this job off because I don't want to screw up the table and need to strip it again. But you can only put off a good friend for a few years.
Len