# Cherry: moving from oil-based to waterborne poly



## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

i use a lot of cherry and my favorite finish is satin Arm-R-Seal. I use it plain, and after a few months the cherry has darkened to a perfect color. It's foolproof.

So . . . I've decided to fool with it. I've been using more General Finishes High Performance poly. I like it for two reasons: 1) now that I've learned to spray it, I can get a really nice finish in way less time. 2) Water-based clean-up is much more convenient in general.

I've been thinking of how to achieve the finish I get with Arm-R-Seal. I was wondering about using orange/amber shellac (i'd play with the tone) and then cover with the HP poly. I assume it will age and darken and come out long term the same way. Is that correct? Anyone else use waterborne poly that achieves the aged finish naturally.


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## ChefHDAN (Aug 7, 2010)

Charles, this table is 4 years old in this picture, coated with BLO and then sprayed with WB poly. I used the same process for an entertainment center I just finished and I'm going to try and watch it better to see how long the tone shift took.

At 4 years









When 1st finished


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## bkseitz (Oct 24, 2014)

That is a beautiful a beautify table. Love the inlay border


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## ClintSearl (Dec 8, 2011)

You don't need no stinkin' under-finish, especially BLO. Start with a 20% thinned coat of the waterborne, smoothed back to 220, followed by as many straight coats to get the build wanted. The cherry will darken naturally.


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

The reason I was considering shellac undercoat is because the one time I used straight waterborne on cherry ( on a lied I don't have access to so I can't see how it turned out after darkening), I didn't like the pinkish cherry color. The arm-r-seal darkens it enough for me initially.


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## Scott_C (Oct 13, 2012)

you might try messing with a water soluble dye added to the poly since your spraying. You'll have to experiment but it's a great way to warm up water white poly.


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## bearkatwood (Aug 19, 2015)

The shellac would seal the grain and stop that fuzziness from the water based finish nicely I think as well. Sounds like a good combo Charles and you could use a tint to get the color shade you are hoping for. Hope it works out well.


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

> you might try messing with a water soluble dye added to the poly since your spraying. You ll have to experiment but it s a great way to warm up water white poly.
> 
> - Scott C.


I've experimented with dye in the poly a bit, but I was thinking that the shellac might give it a bit richer color.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

I'd be interested in knowing what you settled on. Also, what are you using to spray the poly, HVLP?

Thanks,


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## Johnny_Yuma (Nov 29, 2009)

Here are some samples I made a few years ago that might help.
Left to right.
Straight Arm R Seal
Danish oil with Arm R Seal top coat (tried and true Danish oil)
Straight waterborne poly with UV ( I believe it was Enduro poly)
Custom color- GF WB dye stains, 2pt Vintage cherry, 1pt Light brown. Enduro poly top coat


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## bbasiaga (Dec 8, 2012)

I was going to suggest natural color danish oil. It brings the pink raw cherry to a light reddish brown. Let it dry 3 days, the water born over the top.

Brian


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## ClammyBallz (Apr 16, 2015)

This cherry cabinet was finished with two coats of garnet shellac and then 2 coats of EM8000.


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

I'm on the road, so I don't have a pic, but I did a sample board the other day, and I think I'm going to do one coat of sealcoat/super blonde with 3 coats of garnet shellac and then the waterborne poly, all sprayed.


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## OSU55 (Dec 14, 2012)

For color only, adding dye (Trantint honey amber matches ob poly well) to the WB poly will do it, but the finish will be a bit lifeless. Shellac first will pop the grain like ob finishes, giving it some chatoyance - almost looks like a metallic paint in the light.

Sealcoat sometimes doesn't play well with wb topcoats, so I always use flakes with them. I use blonde shellac and use Transtint to get whatever color I'm after. Don't have to buy or inventory different colors of shellac.


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