The background is that I'm building rift sawn white oak kitchen cabinets....a project that my wife has been patiently waiting for for nearly 2 1/2 years while i managed to keep busy with paying jobs. I've been finishing 95% of my jobs, prior to this, using waterbourne, mostly GF Enduro clear poly or Enduro white tint base (tinted).
For the current job I wanted an amber-tone finish that would really show off the RSWO grain. My first experiment was GF Seal-A-Cell followed by FG New Pine gel stain. The results were exactly what I was looking for....rich amber tone with some grain pop. Perfect...except I'm not set up in my shop to spray solvent based (ML Campbell Krystal post-cat is high on my list).
It's costly and a hassel to set up a booth safe for solvents so I began looking into waterbourne alternatives that would provide the same rich amber tones as well as the durability of a quality solvent based laquer. Enter General Finishes Enduro-Var, supposedly one of the top few WB's that deliver warm and durable finishes.
I coated one side of a QSWO board with the Enduro-Var and the other with a combo of Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal topcoat. The differences are subtle but noticable. The Enduro-Var flows out very well, has a nice amber tone, and from all accounts is durable as heck......with one big drawback: after coats it looks like plastic. The heavy solids have softened the grain patterns and the wood just doesn't look nearly as nice as the Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal topcoat sample.
So now I've got to decide to go to the added trouble of setting up for solvent spraying or just go with a plastic topcoat that, in my view, diminishes the natural beauty of the wood I'm using.
This thread is really a share....and a ramble. But I would be interested in hearing from others that are evaluating WB Vs solvent. One possible solution I'm considering is thinning out the Endur-Var 15-20% to reduce the % of solids....I'm thinking this might alleviate the plastic look. Another thought was to sample the "Flat" finish (I sampled the "Satin" finish). A flat finish may mute the plastic look.
All comments welcomed!