Tonight I carried the hall table that I've been working on up from the shop and into the hall where it will reside. I have posted several questions on how best to finish the table, and I ended up taking Jim Becker's advice to not use the "evil poly", and finished the table with 2 coats of BLO, and then 2 coats of a wipe on tung oil varnish instead. I liked the look of the finish after 2 coats so I stopped there and declared the table officially done! The top is cherry, the aprons are figured maple (found in the rack at Lowe's with the regular maple-same price), and the legs are 50+ year old maple from bumper boards that were being scrapped out at Kodak! My wife LOVES the table, and told me how much she liked the finish as well as the design! She told me that I should go out and buy all the tools that I ever wanted so that I could make a set of end tables and a coffee table for the living room! (OK, OK, I made up the part about buying all the tools I ever wanted for dramatic emphasis ). I made about 374 mistakes on the table, covered up about 237, repaired about 83, and will learn to live with the other 54!!! I'm starting my next project now which will be a bookcase for my oldest son, who is graduating from Le Moyne College on 5/22/05 as an English Teacher (High School)!!
My thanks to everyone for their advice and support!