I just completed refinishing my daughter’s cherry trestle table top. What really annoyed me about this project was that I had previously had to refinish it due to a sticky breadboard that cracked the top. I had previously ripped the top apart, put in a new board and then added new breadboards. The first and second times I finished this table I used Minwax Wipe-on Polyurethane. I was very disappointed at the durability of this finish. The table is used in a kitchen and my daughter and granddaughter had subjected it to significant wear. There were places that the bare wood was showing after only a couple of years.
A friend suggested that I should use Behlens Rock Hard Table Top Finish. I used this along with the Behlens Rock Hard Table Top Reducer for this finial refinishing. I noticed something very interesting about this varnish. Normally I dilute my varnishes and oils with unscented mineral spirits and when I cleaned up my brushes with the mineral spirits I noticed cloudiness in the varnish. When I diluted or cleaned up with the Behlens Reducer there wasn’t any cloudiness. I also noticed that Minwax Antique Oil performs the same way but Watco Danish Oil doesn’t. Apparently the Behlens Reducer is a better solvent for these varnishes than the mineral spirits.
Because this varnish will really set up quickly, I transferred the varnish from the quart paint can to a quart solvent can. That way it was easier to pour out what I needed and then reseal the can. I was very careful to also spray some argon into the can each time before I closed it. You could use Bloxygen, but I used a spray can of wine preservative that I got at my local supermarket. It’s the same thing and is a mixture of argon, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. You just want to remove the oxygen so the varnish doesn’t set up. I’ve heard that the Behlens Rock Hard Finish can completely set up in the can in as little as a couple of months.
I scraped off the polyurethane and resanded the surface. I started with 150 grit paper on my random orbital sander (ROS) and went up to 220 before I put on my first coat. I put on two coats with a 1:1 dilution of the Rock Hard Varnish and its Reducer. I sanded between each coat with 320 on the ROS. I then went to 6:4, 7:3, 8:2 and finally 9:1 dilutions and switched to hand sanding with 320 and/or Mirlon pads after the 6:4. The varnish spread and leveled very nicely but was noticeably harder to paint with the later coats.
One thing that I didn’t expect was the color of the varnish. The Rock Hard Table Top Varnish is quite amber and gave a yellow cast to the wood. With this cherry table it wasn’t a problem but I used it to finish some turnings and it gave them a very unpleasant yellow color. The sanding dust was even very bright yellow.
Once the table had cured for a couple of days, I used a gray Mirlon pad to go over the entire table to remove all the dust nibs and such. I then leveled the finish with P600 and then 1200 wet/dry paper with mineral spirits. Once it was smooth and flat I used rottenstone with a felt pad bring the surface back to a satin surface. My last step was to put on two coats of wax.
I just delivered and reinstalled the table and think it looks pretty good. See the photos below. The brighter redder one used a flash while the other one used tungsten lights. The actual color is sort of in between these photos. When I was working on this table in my basement I began to think that it was much too yellow. Now that I have it in the kitchen, I think the colors are very nice. It still matches the base (which I haven't touched since it was built 5 1/2 years ago).
I think that Behlens Rock Hard Table Top Finish is a very nice product and it appears to give a very durable and robust finish. I don’t think that most people will want to use it on any wood where you can’t tolerate yellowing. On cherry, walnut, mahogany or any other dark wood it should work very well. On maple, ash or any light colored wood, I don’t think that it will give you the results that you want.
Cheers,
David
Kate - Table - f.jpg Kate - Table - n.jpg
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