You can read the how to books and watch the youtube tutorials, but you have to get your hands dusty if you want to lay down a fine finish on wood. When I was planning the shoji screen project, I wanted to find out what the ideal finish for the walnut burl veneer would be, so I took some scraps;
Glued them to a sheet of mdf;
Scraped them all smooth;
Then prepped each with a different finish.
Of course, I took careful notes of each step of the finish and left one unfinished for comparison.
My goal was to find out which combination of prep and finsh would give the ideal luster and depth,
While also maximizing color contrast and grain detail.
It turns out, none of the finishes I applied really stood out. They all had similar results. The shellac was slightly more glossy, the oil finish gave slightly better contrast and the poly was completely unremarkable.
Unfortunately, none of these minor differences would even show up in a photograph, so I do not have any dramatic results to compare.
Basically I confirmed my suspicion that the type of finish is a lot less important than the prep and polish. Since I sanded each piece to 600 grit before applying the finish, then poished the finish with pumice and mineral oil, there was, in the end, not much difference.
I did notice that, after some time, the wipe on poly started to crack.
I’m Sky Crane and I made this with my own hands.
Post a thing you made, and I will vote it up.