Ideas for finishing my walnut and maple table

[Michael Yadfar]

I haven't done a whole lot of finishing on my life, but have used stain, Danish oil, polyurethane, and wax before (obviously not in the same project). As my first major project in my own personal shop, I've built a coffee table out of black walnut and hard maple. The table is almost complete so I'm looking to move into finishing soon.

I don't think staining makes sense since Walnut is a beautiful wood the way it is, and while maple isn't, the light contrast is my goal. This is going to be a regularly used living room coffee table, so I do want a heavy duty top coat, so I probably will use polyurethane. My question though is should I do anything under the poly to enhance the wood, or will it look good straight on?

[John TenEyck]

I did some tests last year and concluded that BLO does indeed add to the depth of the grain and bring out the warm red tones in walnut better than varnish alone.

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The specimen on the left is just gloss Arm-R-Seal, the middle one is Arm-R-Seal over Sealcoat shellac, and the right one is Arm-R-Seal over a lightly wiped on coat of BLO. I never use BLO, but I now make an exception when working with walnut.

As for the topcoat, you might want to consider Arm-R-Seal. It's very tough and chemically durable, and looks good over both walnut (as you see above) and maple, as shown below.

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Best of all, you can apply it with nothing more than a blue shop paper towel.

John