Cherry Chair last step

[Bill Borchers]

Hi Folks,
I'm finishing a cherry chair and have been trying lots of combinations of finishes (on samples of course). I really do like the BLO, shellac routine. It's the last step after BLO and shellac that's got me stumped.
I want a satin finish. I tried the poly (OK, kinda plasticy). I also tried Cabot Satin Varnish (formerly McCloskey Heirloom) which was beautiful, but too glossy for me (yes, I stirred the can). Did I get a bad batch of the varnish?
Has anyone tried the Minwax brush on (I have no spray equipment) satin laquer? Is it any good?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Bill

[Sam Yerardi]

I would try varnish again, but after it cures do a rubout with steel wool and perhaps pumice to achieve the desired sheen you want. There are different methods to do this. You're not necessarily stuck with how it comes out of the can.

[Steve Schoene]

Why not just stop with the shellac. Chairs get banged around, and a high percent of those dings would happen with varnish anyway. But varnish, particularly polyurethane varnish, is hard to repair. Shellac is a chinch. But other than the enevitable dings there isn't much else that chairs need protection from that shellac can't handle. It's easy to rub out shellac to what ever sheen you want.

[Sam Yerardi]

Bill,
Steve has a good point. For most of the furniture I build I usually do no more than shellac as a final finish, and occasionally use varnish. I've read that a lot of people are afraid of using shellac but like Steve says, if you run into a problem it is very easy to recover. Alcohol is typically the solvent you will use and you can repair a lot of dings, etc., right in place simply by rubbing the area with alcohol and a light abrasive pad, steel wool or even a clean cotton rag. This is definitely one case I think where simpler is the best route.

[Carl Eyman]

The regular Waterlox might be too shiny, but they have a satin. I've used a mixture of the two to get the degree of gloss I wanted.