Finish

[Dan Williams]

I am turning lamps and I am useing Spar varnish because of the high gloss, it ability to move with the wood and I think it will last for years, beyond my years I hope.

Is Varnish a good finish for quality and longevity ? Please give me your oppinions and what is the BEST FINISH to use

[Stan Cook]

Film finishes are typically more durable, but are also more difficult to repair should the finish become damaged. Waxes are the least durable but are the easiest to repair/refresh. Oil finishes fall somewhere in between.

[Glenn Hodges]

Dan, spar varnish or polyurathene should give you years of good service on a lamp. A good wax on top of this will also help.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Dan I have used Waterlox, Spar Varnish and Poly. I put some Renaissance wax on it to keep the finger prints off.

[Richard Madison]

Dan,
Have some pieces done around 1990 with maybe 12 coats of sprayed polyurethane varnish. They still look very good. In those days I finally arrived at the process of wiping or brushing on about 3 coats, wet sand the surface level (flat and smooth) with 600, then spray several finish coats. Lots of time and work.

Lately am mostly using a wipe-on lacquer based sanding sealer (which can be buffed to a soft gloss), followed by several coats of spray lacquer if high gloss is needed. Less work and much faster, as you can shoot several coats of lac. in a day.

For really phanatical phinish, build many lacquer coats, let cure for some days, sand to 4000 or higher and buff. Back to more time and work.

[Dan Williams]

Dan I have used Waterlox, Spar Varnish and Poly. I put some Renaissance wax on it to keep the finger prints off.

Renaissance wax is a great wax but I heard that KIWI nautral shoe polish is the exact same thing. Am I right

[Bernie Weishapl]

According to Bonnie Klien no.