# Minwax Polyshades--Any Experience Or Advice?



## lobro4

I have never used the product but I am finishing a HUGE project and wonder if a one step process would be worth the time saved if anyone can comment if the product works… how's it look… etc. Anyone with experience that can offer their two cents worth?


----------



## Sawkerf

I've used it on a couple of projects and don't think that it's worth all of the aggravation. I used the Bombay Mahogany, and had a helluva time getting the deep, even, color I wanted. The words on the can are lies IMO.

I did eventually get what I wanted from it, but it took way more work than the advertising implies.

Some of my problems might have been the dark color I used. Something lighter may have worked better.


----------



## crank49

I used it on the legs of my workbench, Red Oak faces, and it bloched badly. Removed most of it with steel wool and about 50 lbs of elbow grease. Made me a mixture of polyshades mixed 50/50 with BLO and this worked better.

Think I like the "wipe on/wipe off stain followed by poly finish" method better.


----------



## CharlieM1958

Advice regarding Polyshades: Put the can down and run, don't walk, in the opposite direction.


----------



## lobro4

I sense a common theme here. Thanks for the heads up.


----------



## Mosquito

I used the black polyshades on a set of small shelves (knick-knack shelves) and it worked ok. Took about 3 coats to get a good finish. Seems good enough, but I don't think I'd use it for a large project.


----------



## Tom148

I used it to finish my house some years back. It worked OK but to be honest you really have to work to get an even finish. I think I would do it the old fashioned way….seal it, stain it, finish it!

Goog luck.


----------



## gfadvm

When I did the woodwork in my daughter's clinic I added some stain and mineral spirits to Spar urethane and wiped it on. It worked very well and certainly saved us a lot of time. I tried it on some scrap until I got the color my daughter wanted. 2 coats wiped on and I was done. Still looks good 3 years later.


----------



## JollyGreen67

The only time I tried it, the color just layed on top of the wood, color never did absorb in to the wood. When the finish chipped there was bare wood under the chip, no color.


----------



## Howie

Like Charlie said, run the other way.
Nasty as far as I'm concerned.


----------



## wormil

Someone gave me a free can of Natural Cherry and I used it on pine plywood cornhole boards. Brush on, sand, repeat. Worked fine, better than I expected. Doesn't look like cherry but who cares, they were cornhole boards. As implied above, it is a finish with a toner, not really a stain, so it sits above the wood. The downside is that it takes several coats if you want a rich color, the upside is that it should even out any color variances in the wood. I had no problems with blotching.


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck

I've had good luck with polyshades on certain smaller projects. I do not follow the instructions on the can though. I hold a brush in one hand, a rag in the other. I brush on, let sit for about minute while I'm brushing on further down the project. Between a minute and two minutes (NO MORE, or it'll blotch) wipe hard. I mean really press the rag into the wood and WIPE. I got this technique down on scrap before using it and have experimented to get different tones on different woods I had on hand.
Now, I done all this because I was given a crap load of the stuff by a contractor I know who had bought it for a job and the customer didn't like it. Hey. It was free so I wanted to get use out of it.

All that being said, although I wound up with some nice looking projects with it, I would not waste my money actually buying the stuff. If I was given more, I would use it. If I'm buying it though, I'd rather take the time to do several steps and be sure to get it right the first time.

By the way, I did ruin one project with polyshades and it seemed that no amount of sanding in the world would help it. I wound up using the whole projoect as firewood.


----------



## nate22

If I were you I wouldn't use it. I have used the bombay mahagony and the problem I find is it bloches easily and you will get one spot that has polyurithane and another spot that doesn't have any. So if I were you I wouldn't use it try the old fashion way stain it then put polyurithane on it. I my opion thats the best way to get good results.


----------



## joebloe

Run don't walk away from this stuff,tried it once and never again.If you put on multipul coats ofthis stuff you can make a golden oak look like ebony.


----------



## mmcafee09

waste of money!


----------



## bandit571

Spend the little extra, and get a stain, and a varnish SEPERATELY. Used it a few times, just to get rid of the quart i bought. Well stirred, so the stain is mixed in right, leaves bubbles in the varnish. If not constantly stirred, and mixed as you use it, it WILL STREAK BADLY. Stuff is junk. Take the time to get the colour right, let it dry, and THEN get the varnish going. better


----------



## Zeppelinator

No. No. No. That could be your slowest nightmare ever

Do yourself a favor and get some ML Campbell Naptha based stain. It's a professional product that goes on even and dries very quickly. You can usually find it somewhere locally. I prefer to finish cabinets in precat lacquer as it is relatively cheap, sprays easy and looks great. Another company is Camger Chemical in MA. They will UPS. They also have good stains and finishes. A sanding sealer over the stain will make scuffing easy and you should be able to use two finsh coats. Satin is nice for larger projects as it shows up less imperfections.

If you can't spray then Oil Poly over stain is fine too.

http://www.mlcampbell.com/locator
http://www.camger.com/index2.htm


----------



## Manitario

Don't do it!! Danish oil as a stain with several coats of wipe on poly works well and is easy to apply and will not make you hate life like Polyshades will…


----------



## cathyb

The whole Minwax line makes me cringe! I've used it in the past because it is so thin I could easily spray it with my HPLV gun. If you want a poly that can be spray with a gun or a Preval kit, use General polyurethane. It has great flow and is thin enough to spray without any problems. Good luck….....


----------



## BTimmons

I tried Polyshades once. *ONCE.* I hate it with the burning intensity of a thousand suns.

I understand that Minwax tries to market it as a shortcut. Instead of staining and then applying polyurethane, why not do both at once, right? The truth is, some processes cannot or should not be combined. It's necessary for a person to take a shower, just as it's necessary to (how shall I put this delicately) vacate one's bowels. But if you try to do them both at the same time, well, you won't like the results.


----------



## Doss

I learned my lesson on stain impregnated finishes a while back when I was building a credenza for my house. I thought, well, if it goes on right, then it should work well. Well, it didn't. Since I was doing such a large piece, parts of it would dry slightly before I got another pass on it. The color starting getting splotchy and dark in some of the overlapped areas and the finish just didn't look right in the areas it went on clean.

I compare those stain+finish products like looking at your furniture through colored lenses instead of coloring the furniture itself. There is a totally different depth and look to staining a piece then putting a varnish/poly/etc. over than using something like Polyshades. Polyshades looks like you just put a colored film on top of the piece.


----------



## Bertha

That stuff is evil. Best to just simply avoid it. I didn't read any of the responses, but I'm guessing they're like mine. If someone above loves the stuff, my apologies.


----------



## Mosquito

I guess I didn't use it as a 'stain' per-say, I used it more like a paint… I got black and wanted it because I wanted something that would be tougher than normal paints and show the grain nicely… I also wanted gloss. For this,i t worked great. After 3 coats I couldn't see the color of the wood (this wasn't my choice, by the way) so it effectively achieved what I was looking for.


----------



## Fuzzy

Not a fan of Minwax products in the first place, but this is probably their WORST line yet.


----------



## lobro2

In the name PolyShades part of it is misspelled. It should be PLOYsHADES. Nuff said. Used on a cabinet and will sand and do it right. It will come off. Best way I found is to sand it off and what is residual will be revived into the stain when you start over. So test the new stain on a hidden area as it may be slightly different than you are expecting. Any left over the best use is for the inside of storage drawers in the shop. It is hidden and will give you a sealer to make the dust clean up easier.


----------



## bobsmyuncle

Friend of mine calls it "The worst thing to happen to a can."

Very difficult to get even color. The directions always say "apply thin coats." Technically, it's a toner-a finish with color in it. Generally, these need to be applied with a very light hand and usually sprayed to get even coverage.


----------



## nwbusa

I've tried it twice, the mahagony and black… and they both sucked, for all the reasons stated above. Won't be wasting my time or money on this product again.


----------



## cjwillie

They should call it PolySucks. It was more work to remove and refinish after using this stuff than to stain and finish separately. Don't waste your time or money!


----------



## BillWhite

I think it will make pretty good fire starter.
Only MW product I use regularly is the Finishing Wax 'cause I can't find any Johnson's paste wax here.
Bill


----------



## BobM001

Exsqueeze me? Did you say "Poly$hit"? When walking through the aisle with the wood finishes, AVERT YOUR EYES when passing that section. They oughta be ashamed!


----------



## Dusty56

*Don't do it !!! PLEASE , for the love of wood ,don't do it !!*


----------



## frank100

I used the classic black gloss finish on a small project. Putting on the first coat freaked me out because it came out very translucent with hardly any color. So I gave it a second coat after 6 hours and it came out slightly darker but still not "black" . At this point I was committed to having ruined my project! Then I apples the 3rd coat and lo and behold! It was a beautiful coat of black and it tuned out spectacular! I was very happy with the results. Keep the coats thin as the manufacturer suggests. Otherwise you WILL get those blotches.


----------



## Cooler

I met Norm Abrams at a hardware show in Chicago once. He was personable and easy to talk to. He told me that he always uses polyshades (oil base, back then) when working with pine. It avoids the splotching issues.

I've done the same and assuming you made tests and have the right shade of polyshade you are good to go. I put on one, two or three coats of polyshades until I get the color I am after. As soon as the color is right I use clear to build the finish to the thickness I am after.

For vertical surfaces I use two coats; for horizontal surfaces, 3 coats; for horizontal work surfaces, 4 coats total.


----------



## BurlyBob

Sure am glad I read this before I wasted my money on it. Thanks for posting this one.


----------



## Cooler

> Sure am glad I read this before I wasted my money on it. Thanks for posting this one.
> 
> - BurlyBob


I don't think you would have wasted your money. I wonder how many of the naysayers have given the product a fair chance (or have even used it). A lot of it sounds like repeated "common knowledge". I use it on pine and I will continue to use it on pine. And I have used it over stain to get a slightly darker color. The oil based is very good. I don't care for Minwax's water based finishes of any kind so I cannot comment on that.

In the right situation it is the right product.


----------



## eris

I found this thread and signed up on lumberjocks just to post my opinion.

I'm building a workbench and was thinking about a nice polyurethane to apply to the work surface. On one of the home handyman websites they recommended Polyshades and I thought it sounded like a quick and useful solution. Unlike the usual over-analysis on every project I picked up a can when I was buying the lumber.

I followed the directions on a small test board and it seemed to work fine. Unfortunately it falls apart on larger surfaces and I have to agree that I now dislike this product with the burning hatred of a thousand suns. It was suppose to be a quick and appealing sealing stain for my workbench. It turned out to be worse than useless because after all the common streaking and blotching problems, it turned my workbench surface that I spent a lot time prepping into a stripping and sanding project. It actually wasted a ton of time rather than saving it. Had I known this I would have put the can on a rocket and launched it into a Lunar orbit, because that would have been a better use of my time.

Minwax should be sued for fraud.


----------



## GR8HUNTER

JUNK


----------



## distrbd

Pure unadulterated junk.And I did give it a fair chance but it just performed measurably.


----------



## jwmalone

No reason to post but I hate that crap and just want to join the polyshade lynching party. I make my own for pine and other hard to stain stuff. Most people that hate it do so because they don't use it in the correct application or they think it will look just like a stained and pollyed finnish. People that use it in the right application hate because its junk. I have a shop full of stain and assorted polys and varnishs so Its easy to mix up what ever I need.


----------



## JAAune

Put the can down and back away very, very slowly.

It's one of those snake oil products of the variety sold on late night infomercials promising to perform 20 tasks at once. In reality, all you'll end up with is a quick way to achieve an uneven stain job sealed into your project.

Actually it's just a toner (color in finish). In theory, there's nothing new or wrong about such a product.

Toners are useful however, I never apply them to bare wood. Even with experience, it's possible to slip up during application. That's why I always use toners between cured coats of finish. Toner should be something that's easy to wipe off if anything goes wrong. The base finish used for the toner should be something that won't dissolve the finish layers used below and on top of the toner. Toners are also much easier to use out of a spray gun than by hand.

Yes, I've used the Polyshades products a couple times. Later I learned how to use a combination of dyes, oil stains and toners to achieve any desired color with almost zero risk of irreversible mishaps.


----------



## jwmalone

Nice post JAAune. Except the spray vs brush thing but that's just my opinion.


----------



## JAAune

I have brushed or wiped on toners before but the effect is different. Spraying it on changes the color of the finish without altering any other aspect of the appearance. It's a great way to kill excess red or green in the stain or darken a piece that's too light. The color shift is seamless and near impossible to identify once the piece is done.

Usually I'll resort to a brush or rag for spot application or onsite jobs. In those cases it's harder to get the perfectly even application so I often shoot for something that mimics the surrounding grain instead.


----------



## OSU55

In my experience toners are next to impossible to apply well except by spray. Ive done it by brush and it was passable but it's not a practice I recommend. The shades stuff can be used if thinned but I use dyes mixed into poly. Works far better.


----------



## Dave1961

I wanted to weigh in on the comments regarding Minwax Polyshades and or anyone attempting to ebonize a hardwood and having difficulty. I have just completed walnut table 11' x 5' x 4". Against my objections, the customer wanted an ebony color and finish. Because of its density of Walnut, it would not take enough ebony stain to get a near-black color. We had the crash and burn issue with multiple coats of gel stains. We also tried India ink but because of the size of the project, we could get the ink on nor fast enough to get and even clean look. I have a degree in industrial arts and have been building furniture for 40 years. I have made much of the furniture in my house and always prefer select natural wood colors vs hiding the wood color with stains or paints. Up until now, I considered myself anti-stain/varnish. Only out of desperation and a missing several deadlines on this $20K project, did I decide I had no choice but to attempt using Polyshades. To sum up my 3 week saga…if it is a big project you must spray on the Polyshades and not brush it on. You need to do it in a spray room or in my case put plastic sheathing around the entire project top sides and bottom, using lent free microfiber wrags to clean between sanding. I suggests 2-3 coats max with a Spar-Urathane top coat. My project came out perfect with very uniform color. To be honest I am still shocked how the finished product looked. I don't see myself using this product on new furniture/cabinet projects. However, it would not be a viable choice for painted furniture that has been sanded down only to find out the wood beneath was ugly. Just my thoughts and I hope this helps anyone going down this path.


----------



## Sunburned

Think it has been beaten to death at this point but i have one can. Will not be getting another… ever.


----------

