Varnish/Oil Advice

[Dustin Brown]

Hey guys, I'm looking at starting to mix my own varnish as well as doing my own oil/varnish mixes. I've been reading about the different types of varnishes and I'm a little unsure on what would be the best to get.

My mother is able to get good discounts on paints/varnishes due to the plant she works for and they happen to carry gallon cans of alkyd based varnish. Would this be a good varnish to use or is it better to go for the harder phenolic varnish? I am going to be doing an oil/varnish mix on my workbench and my girlfriends dresser. I was also planning on making a wiping varnish to use on general projects instead of arm-r-seal.

Which brings me to my next question, I know it is generally better to use a gloss varnish for almost all but the last coat if you are going to be doing a satin finish. The varnish only comes in gallon cans so I am a little hesitant to buy a gallon of gloss and satin. Is rubbing out with steel wheel a quick and easy process to achieve the satin finish or is it worth it to have a satin varnish as well?

Lastly, does anyone ever use an oil finish or oil/varnish finish and then do a couple topcoats of regular varnish to get a harder finish for tabletops etc...? I like the look of oil and oil/varnish, but I may need an option for durability at some point.

Thanks!

[Thomas Canfield]

A friend that did a lot of finishing once told me that you can always dull a gloss finish, but you can never gloss a satin finish to get the depth because of the filler material used to produce the duller satin finish. After that, all my varnish has been gloss and final gloss level determined by buffing.

[Prashun Patel]

I dont see any reason to put varnish over oilvarnish. The look will not change vs doing a light coat of oil and then just varnish.

alkyd will work fine. Given that the oilvarnish coat results in so little varnish being applies, the hardness is not a big deal. Personally i like semigloss as the varnish component in an oilvarnish blend. An oil varnish blend, done right, requires no rubbing out.

A typical good schedule is:
dry sand up to 220.
Flood a coat of oilvarnish on. Let it all absorb and wipe off any excess 20 minutes later.
wetsand the next couple coats in with 400. Wipe it all off each time.
wetsand with mineral spirits and 600 grit.
wipe on oilvarnish with rag. Wipe it all off. Repeat this last step until sheen is perfect.


As you get to later coats, the sealed wood develops sheen and if the mix dries too fast, it starts to streak. Thats why i dont wetsand the varnish in at higher grits beyond 600. I fact, you can even add more oil to the lTer coats to increase the open time. To that end, you can even apply the very first coat as a straight wipe on varnish and then add more oil to each successive coat.

[John TenEyck]

FWIW, I find the cost of Arm-R-Seal or other commercial finishes so cheap in comparison to the cost of wood, other materials, and my time that it makes no sense for me to fool around trying to make my own wiping varnish. If the piece I'm finishing has a lot of nooks and crannies I use whatever sheen finish I want; it's just too difficult to try to buff gloss down to some lower sheen in those cases. I have not found a loss in clarity or streaking as some folks claim by using a satin finish compared to a steel wool rubbed gloss finish. And wipe on products yield such a smooth finish that rubbing with steel wool, etc. is not required to get a silky feel anyway.

John