Finishing a white oak mantle clock

[dennis thompson]

I am building a mantle clock out of quartersawn white oak.
Any suggestions of how to finish it ? (I'd like to wind up with a satin finish)
Thanks
Dennis

[Jason Whelehon]

White oak and wipe on poly get along great. Another alternative would be boiled linseed oil or simply Arm-R-seal (http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=7259) or poly acrylic (http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=756).

Any of those finishes will work well and are pretty forgiving if you've got a lot of intersections and hard to sand areas. Some 4-O steel wool will do the job.

On a side note, one thing I've heard (have yet to test), is that you should apply coats of higher gloss finish than you want in the finished product. You can always dull the finish easier than you can gloss it up. From what I've heard, all finishes start as gloss and they add particles to the mix to break up the light making it a more satin finish. If someone can elaborate on that I'd appreciate it.

If the aforementioned statement is true, I'd apply gloss and dull it with a few swipes of steel wool (4-O)