EM2000 finish schedule?

[alex grams]

I am working on a kitchen table and chairs and want something with a little stronger wear resistance than em6000, which tends to lean towards using EM2000 waterborne varnish.

All wood is walnut, and I am looking at this schedule:

-BLO
-Shellac (zinnser seal coat, but I have had some recommendations on the target finishers forums that their Target golden red shellac works well with walnut)
-Em2000

Then sand the top down to flatten some and give a smooth finish. I am looking at a satin/semi gloss for the top.

I may use the same finish for the chairs, but I have some extra em6000 I may use up on their vertical surfaces as they won't take the abuse the top will.

Thanks in advance. Any comments/suggestions?

[Jim Becker]

Do some test pieces with scrap from your project first...both with the schedule you cite and with just the EM2000. Since this product is a "waterborne oil varnish", it may impart enough color without the extra steps. Do note that this product is going to look different than the EM6000 "naked" and side-by-side. It has an amber flavor where the EM6000 is more "clear". This is important if you want the chairs to have the same look as the table.

[alex grams]

I ordered some EM2000 and some of the superclear 9000 to test out, along with some golden red shellac (there were a lot of recommendations for the golden red shellac as a basecoat and that it really looks good on the walnut, so I wanted to try it)

Is there anything unique on waterbased shellac I should consider?

Also, I have filled some knot holes with west system epoxy, how does this behave in regards to finishes on it? Just treat as normal?

Thanks again.

[Jim Becker]

Alex, I tried the water borne shellac product a few years ago, and it's been the only Target product I didn't like. But others have used it successfully. Since I use regular de-waxed shellac primarily as a barrier coat between water soluble dye and the water borne finish (typically EM6000), a water borne shellac wouldn't meet my needs, anyway.

[Matt Meiser]

Instead of BLO you might consider General Finishes's Seal-A-Cell. It dries but will color the wood like BLO. My friend that turned me on to this says to follow by wiping down with acetone after the Seal-A-Cell has dried.

I'd use the WB shellac. I've been having good luck with it. You want to just basically mist on a few coats. Any more and it will run.

Then follow with the EM2000. There should be some posts on Target's forum on this exact schedule.

I used EM2000 on my last project and really like it.

[alex grams]

I made some test pieces with EM2000 and SC9000:

1: BLO, Golden Red WB Shellac, SC9000 Satin
2: BLO, Golden Red WB Shellac, EM2000 Satin
3: General Finish Seal-A-Cell, Golden Red WB Shellac, SC9000 Satin
4: General Finish Seal-A-Cell, Golden Red WB Shellac, EM2000 Satin
5: BLO, Zinsser Clear Shellac, EM2000 Satin
6: BLO, Zinsser Clear Shellac, SC9000 Satin

The Superclear 9000 was a lot more subdued than I expected. It almost added a fumed gray to the walnut and strongly subdued the strength of color of the wood, not sure that is what I was going for. Kind of hard to describe, but it really seemed to hide the chatoyance of the wood grain.

The EM2000 continued to add some depth of color to the wood beyond the Golden Red WB Shellac, which looks quiet nice. I tried the Golden Red WB Shellac because it was recommended by several posters on Target's Forums, and the wife seemed to like it.

I think i will order more of the EM2000 but in semi gloss, and if i still want to go back to satin, i will just use the semi gloss as base coats and topcoat with the Satin.

Also, the EM2000 satin seemed more towards Semi Gloss than the SC9000 Satin. I would call the EM2000 satin, but compared to the SC900 satin, there seemed a marked difference. Both cans were stirred sufficiently prior to placing in sprayer and spraying.