Finishing pine

Dylan, I recently finished a heart pine coffee table used Minwax wipe on poly. This stuff is pretty tough. I put on 9 coats of gloss while sanding to 600 grit between applications. My three year old has beat the crap out of it with toy cars and such and it still looks pretty good after 6 months. The great thing is if it does get some dings on it, I can just sand it a little and re-apply more poly. Of course this finish isn’t for everybody, but it does leave the wood looking natural and it’s pretty tough. My $0.02.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

i would go with a good quality poly. i try to stay away from the minwax stuff and go for a better brand. try general finishes Arm-R-Seal. its a great product and after about 7 coats you’ll have a great finish! you can get it at rockler and I’m pretty sure woodcraft caries it. its a wipe on, and it has really good resins in it. just a great high quality product!

I’ve been very happy with GF products so far, so that would be my preference. Fortunatly, there’s a Rockler store on my way home from work, so that’s easy enough. So far though, it sounds like a wipe-on poly is definitely the reccomendation.

Should I seal with something prior to using something like Arm-R-Seal to avoid getting too much finish in the earlywood, or is that not a concern with a poly finish?

-- Dylan Vanderhoof - New woodworker in training. =)

I too am not too fond of most Minwax products, however don’t knock the wipe on poly until you’ve tried it. Fine Woodworking magazine tested 17 different wipe on poly’s (Issue No. 178) and Minwax beat all of them garnering both Best Overall and Best Value. Here’s a quote from the author:

“It was difficult to select a single winner from this field. All but two performed well, but I was particularly impressed with the performance of Minwax Wipe-On Poly. After the test, I used it to finish a walnut and figured maple dining-room set I had just completed. Apparently the adage “You get what you pay for” doesn’t apply to wipe-on finishes: At $41.95 a quart, Sutherland Welles Wiping Varnish is seven timesmore expensive than the $5.95 Minwax Wipe-On Poly, but the Minwax product performs better.”

I’ve used it on several projects and it delivers the goods.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

Dylan,

Poly forms a protective barrier on the surface of the wood and does not penetrate into the wood. Some wipe-on products will contain a penetrating oil (boiled linseed oil for example) as part of the mix. But, if applied normally, you can’t get too much finish into the wood using these type of products.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I made a corner cabinet href="http://lumberjocks.com/projects/3848">
out of pine and used 1 coat of minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner and 2 coats of minwax honey pine polyshade. It’s held up really good, and I’m very pleased with the results. For your project I might add a couple layers of poly on top for added protection.

-- Todd, Richfield MN

I have had good results with using Seal-A-Cell by General Finishes for the first coat followed by wipe-on poly. The Seal-A-Cell really penetrates and makes the grain pop.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Hummm pine coffee table…at my house that will quickly become a distressed pine coffee table.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com