I made a large wooden kitchentable I' d like to protect it with an oil or a varnish for daily use. what's best

Question

I made a large wooden kitchentable I' d like to protect it with an oil or a varnish for daily use. what's best

Answer 1

Depending on the wood used, and if you want the grain to show.  For a good oil finish, use boiled linseed oil, or Formby's furnature oil.

  I like the use of a good Poly finish of some sort, like a good polyurathane.  The grain will show nicely and the finish is very durable.  Be sure and sand fine and use a wood grain filler, then after drying sand again and apply final finish.

Answer 2

Danish Oil is good & leaves a beautiful smell on the fished product.

Answer 3

I would use Polyurethane since it is for daily use. I like Polyshades by Minwax for staining and coating at the same time. Use 000 steelwool between coats and make sure you wipe off all the dust. No matter what coating you use, do not set hot plates or pots on the table. Doing this pulls the moisture from the wood up into the clearcoat and it will need to be refinished.

Answer 4

Polyurethane works great at protecting surfaces (either water or oil based) but is hard for the average consumer to get a "store bought" surface. Contaminants in the air and debris left on the surface combined with improper application techniques lead to a less than perfect finish.

Lacquer, while extremely fast drying does not offer the protection of a good polyurethane.

Tung oil is both easy to apply and offers great protection. It also is easy to patch/repair should something happen to your new table (cigarette burn, water mark, scratch).^

Answer 5

polyeurathane

Answer 6

You want to use a wipe-on poly.  One in particular is made by Zar.  This is a solvent based, blend of a true varnish, polyurethane, and a tung oil.  This will beneficial to risisting against water marks, heat marks, and other chemicals.  www.ugl.com/zar/wipe-on...

Answer 7

My husband and I refinish furniture for a hobby and the only thing we use is Tung Oil.  Tung Oil was originally used to protect gun stocks.  Considering how important a man's gun was in the early days of our country and if they thought Tung Oil was good enough to protect it, it's certainly good enough for my furniture!

We redid our kitchen table and used High gloss on the toss (it's a little tougher) and low gloss on the rest.  Tung oil is tough, water repellent and if you should get a nick in it, very easy to repair!  Just sand a bit to even out the mark and feather in the finish with a couple of coats!

It's also a very easy finish to work with!  No brushes so no brush marks!  You apply it with a clean, lint free rag.  And no bubbles!  Read the directions on the bottle/container and you should be well on your way to a wonderful outcome to your project!

Answer 8

An oil will have minimal protection.  An oil varnish blend, a bit better, but still somewhat fragile.  A varnish is probably the most durable finish you can apply, since you can't apply specialty catalyzed finishes.

The types of varnish:

Alkyd: Pratt & Lambert #38, McCloskey Heirloom, Sherwin-Williams Fast Dry

Phenolic : Waterlox

Polyurethane: Just about everything else -- Cabot, Varathane, Minwax, Sherwin Williams poly.