finish question

[Ted Daigle]

I've not posted in a while so this is a re-acquaintance effort. But as long as I'm saying "hello, again", why not ask a question, too? I'm still a novice and lately have been looking at my finishing work. Any way, here is the scenario. I've been working with alot of Applachian red oak lately, (good price) and it is a very opened grained wood. I've just been finishing it with oil based stain or aniline dyes and top coating with a wipe on poly. But even the wipe on poly imparts a very "plastic" type of look. Does anyone have any finishing advice on red oak?

[Ken Shoemaker]

I hav been very successful using the following:

3-4 coats of Sam Maloof poly/oil mix.
2-3 coats of Arm-R-Seal (0000 steelwool between each coat)as simple as this seems, it didn't change the color of the wood and looks great without appearing plastic. When I gain more experience I'd like to trry my hand at developing my own concoction (sp?).

Having only been doing this for a couple months, I'm not sure I'd take my advice.

Best of luck..... Ken

[Steve Schoene]

Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish makes a very good finish, with a medium gloss, that I like. For oak I prefer to leave the finish very thin, otherwise, you have to go all the way to a full finish with two applications of pore filler and rubbed out varnish. The Waterlox is a wiping varnish. Consequently, it cures a bit harder than the oil/varnish mix.