finishing my walnut...yet another

[Ryan Fredrickson]

hey guys, i'm a complete noob with woodworking....but am learning.

Anyways, i've spent many hard hours working on building tower speakers and a large center channel.

The cabinets were covered in walnut veneer(not sure if its american or black, I think american).

That part all worked great. I wiped the walnut down with mineral spirits....and loved the way the wet look of it brought out the grain in the wood. ...but of curse this dried and went away.

But I have now stained all of the cabinets with minwax red oak (wanted to get a darker red look, almost like mohogany).

I like the color, but it kind of hides the grain and the different contrasting colors (that I saw much better when was wet with mineral spirits).


I have done a few test pieces with the stain, and semi-gloss poly over it. And it definetely brings out the grain a little (compared to just the stain over the wood).


If I was to use tung oil, or boiled linseed oil (and maybe even shellac), and then put on a few coats of my minwax semi-gloss poly. Would this posibly show the grain more...and give me a little more color. Just seems with the stain on that the darker parts of the walnut are just covered up, it doesn't have much contrast to it.

As I said though, i'm new at this but have plenty of time, and will try anything that i can get me hands on and test out. I just want to end up with a cabinet that has contrast to it, and shows the grain and is something of semi-gloss.

[Steve Schoene]

Pigmented stains do tend to cover grain, though this is somewhat dependent of how well the excess was rubbed off. Even dyes, which don't cover grain, do make the colors more homogeneous. You can take heart from the fact that the multicolors of new walnut will generally become more uniformly brown over time. I wouldn't use the poly over the stained walnut. I would use a traditional resin varnish such as Waterlox Satin. With only a bit of addition of thinner it works nicely as a wipe on finish. Its rich amber color will benefit the stained walnut. If you want a bit more gloss than that use Waterlox Original/Sealer. It's still not high gloss, but is a nice mellow gloss.

[Ryan Fredrickson]

so this Waterlox stuff, is it just a certain brand of tung oil?

I've just been visiting home depo so far for all my woodworking stuff, i'm heading to a woodshop tomorrow, I'll just pick up some tung oil, and try that out.

Since tung oil isnt as strong a finish as poly, is there anything wrong (or would it effect the look), if I simply did a few coats of tung oil, and then 2 coats of poly to finish it off?

And with the sheen, can you normally sand down to a satin if it is desired. (just thinking I should do glossy, and then sand down to the desired sheen) As I said I'm not too sure how I want it to look. But when I'm watching my tv, I dont' want to see a glare coming from the speaker, don't want to be destracted by it.

[Steve Schoene]

Waterlox isn't tung oil at all, it is a varnish manufactured using tung oil and phenolic resin, just like single part polyurethane varnish is manufactured from linseed oil or soya oil reacted with alkyd and polyurethane resin. As a varnish, Waterlox protects from moisture and many household chemicals nearly as well as polyurethane varnish. Waterlox Satin isn't as abrasion resistant as a polyurethane varnish, but speaker cabinets are seldom walked on, so that the Waterlox will be effectively as durable as the wipe on poly, though it will be easier to repair if it ever is damaged.

I don't suggest using pure tung oil since it takes a very long time--more than a week--to cure sufficiently for there to be no risk in applying varnish over it, particularly polyurethane varnish, and will make only the slightest difference, if any, in appearance compared to using the Waterlox directly over the stained walnut.

For an open pored wood like walnut, I recommend using the satin varnish, at least as the top one or two coats, unless you are going for a fully filled look where the pores are completely leveled. Otherswise you are likely to have shiny pores surrounded by a satin surface. Also, if you plan to rub from gloss to satin, it is much easier if you use full strength brush on varnish so that the last coat is thickenough so you can sand and polish without cutting through it into earlier coats. By the way, polyurethane varnish is very difficult to rub out to an even sheen--the same property that resists abrasion also resists polishing (which after all is essentially an abrasion process).

You could start wiping on Waterlox Original/Sealer and then shift to the Satin to finish. That sequence is a good one.

[Ryan Fredrickson]

well, just got back, from the store, I picked up some waterlox Original/Sealer, I would have also got the satin finish as well, but it was quite expensive, $18 for the original/sealer, and $21 for the satin finish.


I'm going to do a test piece and see how it looks with just the semi-gloss original/sealer on it.


after reading, i've found out for a semi-gloss, to a gloss on walnut, the wanut needs to be feeled. And this would be before you stain. Is there anything you can really do to feel in after you have already stained (aside from adding another coat of stain after. (cause I don't want the wood any darker.)

[Ryan Fredrickson]

k, so I've now done 3 coats of waterlox....and so far the project looks great.

The is just one problem though. (again i'm coing 3 large speaker cabinets), and there are just a couple spots (about 3 total) where I didn't do a very good job of gluing the veneer on, and its not attached. I didn't notice it at first. But now that i've applied the waterlox, it seems to just soak right though those parts (leaving a not so nice look, its like when you have just applied the one coat).

Anyways, I think to fix this, I might just put 2 coats of thinned poly and just wipe it on, since poly builds on top, it should come out a little better I think. Another reason is I decided I definetly want a satin sheen, so I either have to buy a can of minwax poly for like $8 or the waterlox satin, which is $21.

I dont' mind the appearance, would there be any adhesion problems with this??? I would use oil based poly