# Endurovar over Shellac over Pure Tung Oil



## clickbangboom (Jan 23, 2013)

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading around and there's a more than a few differing opinions about this. I'm making a set of 4 6' cedar benches for a community garden in Houston, TX and the client requested that I use Tung Oil to finish them because he liked the idea of being able to slap a coat of tung oil on them every year. (Attached is an image of the benches pre tung oil) I have never used Tung oil and from what I read on the internet it could go both ways-either it was a great finish for outdoor furniture or it was a terrible one. I went ahead and gave it a try.










I bought Rockler Pure Tung oil and applied probably 7-10 coats of the stuff. 2.5 quarts in total. The benches turned a really sweet red color but never formed a sheen. I tried wet polishing them with polishing pads and 0000 steel wool. It didn't make a difference. In the end they just had the color but never formed a film or any sort of sheen. They just kept soaking it up.

I talked to the client and convinced him that we should try some thing else. I sanded them to 220 and I want to apply a thin coat of shellac as a sanding sealer and then apply General Finishes Endurovar satin. Shellac + Endurovar is a finishing schedule I've had great success with. I'm wondering if this will work with the Tung oil underneath it. The tung oil has cured for 2-3 weeks.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance,

Logan

www.loganbeck.com


----------



## Wildwood (Jul 22, 2012)

JMHO, would let client see what you have already before proceeding. Annual application easier to maintain than film finishes.

Enduro-Var Urethane, for interior use and has strong warning about not applying over other finishing products. While may look attractive initially lot harder to refinish every year or two. So would forget about Shellac and Eduro-Var products.

General also sells exterior clear coats and primers. Lot more work to refinish every couple of years.

If Tung oil has cured do not see a problem applying a film finish, if not might end up with mess on your hands.


----------



## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

If those will be outside, I suggest you skip anything "polyurethane"...that would include Endurovar. It will work over the tung oil (if it's cured enough), but urethane resins don't do well in the sunlight. Consider a good marine spar varnish (that isn't Helmsman), or possibly a exterior waterborne like GD HP. Now the HP thing seems to contradict my warning about urethane: it doesn't. Waterbornes are actually acrylic resin finishes, many of the manufacturers have started adding a small amount of urethane resin so they can slap that magic word somewhere on the label. But they are still primarily acrylic resin and suitable for outdoor use, even better, they do have any color to them, so the bench will exhibit whatever the colors currently are. It's only a guess on my part, but with the considerable amount of tung oil you've already use you may be in for a very long wait before you top coat it. Using the shellac sealer may solve that just make sure it's dewaxed..


----------



## clickbangboom (Jan 23, 2013)

Thanks for the speedy replies. What is GD HP?


----------



## clickbangboom (Jan 23, 2013)

I just ordered some Epifanes Spar Varnish. It's tung oil based so I feel good about that and it gets great reviews.


----------



## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

Sorry, wrong letters…it should be GF HP, and that's General Finishes High Performance. It's a outdoors finish, with UV inhibitors. The Epifanes mentioned seems to be among the best of the oil based spar varnishes available, Amazon may have it.


----------

