Waterbase for new chest

[Mike Gottlieb]

I just finished a cherry chest and am preparing to finish. I am thinking about spraying a waterbase finish. My question is rather than finish the drawer boxes with shellac, as I usually do when applying an oil base, is it advisable to spay everything with the waterbase?

[Jim Becker]

Since you do not have the off-gassing issue with a water borne finish like you do with an oil based product, yes, you can just use the water borne for internal parts, too, such as drawers.

[Lee Schierer]

You can apply the water based finish to everything. In my limited experience with water based finishes you may not be happy with the color change over time with the Cherry coated with water based finish. They seem to put lots of UV inhibitors in water based finishes and those prevent or significantly limit the color change of the wood under the finish. I made a roll around computer stand for our original computer and used a water based finish. Now more than 20 years later, the wood is still the same color it was when I made the stand. I've never used water based finish on Cherry. I like the way cherry darkens naturally and would hate to see it stay light pink for years and years.

[John TenEyck]

Most WB finishes do not have UV stabilizers in them. You actually have to look pretty hard to find ones that have UV stabilizers. What you may have experienced Lee was not that the WB finish prevented the underlying wood from changing color with light exposure; rather, the finish itself didn't yellow with time as oil based finishes do. WB acrylics, in particular are very resistant to yellowing; they stay clear for a very long time. This can be a blessing or a curse depending upon what you are after. With cherry, I'd probably start with a coat of dewaxed shellac, and I might use something like TC's EM-2000 alkyd modified WB finish over that.

John