Price of Varathane poly vs. Minwax poly???

[Mike Monroe]

Picked up a quart of polyurethane at Menards over the week-end and I noticed the price of a quart of Varathane was about $5 more than a quart of Minwax. Is Varathane that much better than Minwax? Just curious... I went with the Minwax as I couldn't justify the $5 difference.

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I’m going to mix up a batch of wipe on poly... the ½ thinner ½ poly mix, with a splash of BLO.<O:p</O:p

[Steve Schoene]

Scrap the poly all together, pay a bit more than either, and use a traditional resin varnish such as Behlen's Rockhard or Pratt & Lambert 38. Either will rub out nicer and be clearer than any poly. In my opinion, poly is a specialty product only suitable for floors.

[Don Baer]

Mike,
If you realy want to make a nice finish try 1/3 BLO, 1/3 pure tung oil and 1/3 wipe on poly. (Thats Maloof's recipe)

[Reg Mitchell]

how durable is that Don....

[Don Baer]

how durable is that Don....

It seems quite durable. You put on a lot of thin coats. The table I made ended up with 6 coats and dried for 1 week. I put it in the back of my pickup and drove 350 miles from my house in California to my sons house in Arizona. I straped it down in the bed of the truck and when I got to the other end I dusted it off and it looked as good as new. No signs of wear either from the 80+MPH driving or from the straps that I used to hold it down.

[Steve Schoene]

I don't believe the oil/varnish mix--not all that different from Watco except with tung oil instead of thinner--is going to be particularly durable compared to a varnish, especially since in this mix there are two parts oil and one part varnish. This will be relatively soft, soft enough that it shouldn't really be allowed to build to any real thickness on the surface. Any varnish will be harder, and have more water resistance. If I wanted an in-the-wood finish I would mix oil and varnish equally, or even tilted toward the varnish a bit, thinning the mix for easy application by flooding on, letting penetrate for a short time, and then wiping all that I could off.

[Jim Becker]

Steve makes some good points. I will, however, reiterate something I talked a little about when this finishing forum was set up--there is no "one best finish" for all projects. Part of the planing process is to determine how something will be used and finish it appropriately. An oil-varnish mixture can be a very nice finish for many things but I wouldn't use it on a kitchen table. I finish many decorative items with just BLO and wax...they look great. (Actually, Dr. SWMBO's cherry desk is finished that way and looks great even after 7 years of use) So many choices!!

[Mike Monroe]

I'm gunna use the "mix" on some newly minted shop jigs.

I agree with Jim re: no one perfect finish for everything.