best finish for red oak desk

[John S. Genzer]

I'm going to build a desk out of red oak for my adult daughter. Walnut would be be my 1st choice-I like working w/walnut but red oak is 1/2 cost and for 30 BF that's real money.

So, I could use some personal experiences finishing red oak. On my past projects w/walnut, mahogany, and hickory, I've used different finishes with combinations of BLO, stains, shellac, Waterlox and they turned out smooth and shinny. I will try some of my finishes on sample red oak but I am looking for things to not do or watch out for with red oak.


Thanks
John

[Tom Lowry]

I made quite a few pieces for the wife out of red oak. Years ago after buying a red oak kitchen set at Bald Furniture, they turned me on to Prelude now General Finishes oil/urethane finishes. It is some of the easiest stuff I've ever applied and the final results are top notch. Another plus is being oil based it does not water mark. I use it on anything I build and want a tough durable finish that is also easy to repair scratches.

[Dave Gaul]

I just did a small piece in Red Oak using BLO & Shellac. I really like the way it turned out, very natural looking...

[Prashun Patel]

Stain and high-oil-content varnishes like Danish oil can soak into the pores and bleed out for hours after application. So if you are going to use those, just come back often and wipe so's to avoid gummy drops.

Red oak has a prominent grain and accepts color very well. For this reason, many people like to make Red oak very dark.

For a desk, the open pore nature of red oak will also make it dimply. So, I suggest you use a commercial pore filler. Then I'd use a hard varnish like Waterlox. Personally I wouldn't use polyurethane on a desk.

Now, because the stain, pore filler and varnish are all similiarly soluble, you should really spray a thin coat of shellac in between each. The aerosol cans by Zinsser are perfect for this. So a schedule might look like this:

stain
shellac
pore filler
shellac
varnish
varnish
varnish

[Scott Holmes]

Shawn,

"Danish oil" and oil/urethane finishes are not high-oil content varnish; they are oil/varnish blends. There is oil and there is varnish. Varnish is MADE from oil but there is no longer any oil it, the oil combined with the resin to become varnish.

HIgh oil content or "long-oil" varnishes are varnishes made with more oil than "short oil" varnishes. These are know as "spar varnish" and "interior varnish" respectively.