Cherry bed finishing help

[Nick Clark]

Hi everyone, I have built a bed using cherry and have began finishing. I started with BLO then went on to top coat with one coat of wipe-on poly. After reading some of the thoughts on finishing here, I am at a crossroads. I don't really want to have the plastic look on this piece, however I have already began with a thin coat of wipe-on poly. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do from here? Am I pretty much locked into continuing with poly?

To help, I do need a durable finish, but it doesn't need to be as roc hard as poly.

Thanks in advance.

Nick

[Prashun Patel]

If it were me, I'd stick with the poly. You'll only notice it as 'plasticy' when it gets very built up on large broad surfaces. And even then, IMHO the only people that notice that are people who've done a lot of finishing before.


To convince yrself, why don't you make up a couple test boards and finish through 6-7 wiped on coats of poly and see how you like it.

[Chris Padilla]

Shawn has a good idea...one should always test one's finish procedure on scrap first!!

With poly on there, you're about done unless you want to strip it off....

For cherry, I like BLO and dewaxed shellac (SealCoat works fine for me). If the cheery is a bit uneven in color, you might consider an NGR dye....

[Nick Clark]

Thanks for the responses. I had actually done a cherry chest prior to this for a toddler and used poly for its durability. So I knew what the outcome was going to be. I guess I thought the "plasticy" look was normal. My only real experience with shellac was used to seal drawer boxes. I guess I need to expand my horizons a little bit in the future.

[Scott Holmes]

Nick,

FYI polyurethane varnish is tough, it is not very hard, when compared to the other varnishes. It is definetly not ROCK HARD, that would be a phenolic resin varnish, not a urethane resin varnish.

[Joe Chritz]

J. Scott beat me to it. Poly is definately not hard but it is very abrasion resistant.

Since it is to late to really do anything else I would just wipe on three light coats and leave it at that.

There are a ton of threads on finishing cherry with other products and I suggest you try a couple. You will be converted forever. Start spraying and you are converted yet again.

Joe