Help with finishing some shelf standards

[Travis Hirst]

I am building some poplar shelf standards as seen in the last workbench magazine. I have use an american walnut stain and it gives it a nice color but I am wondering if I can now use BLO to give it a little more grain and shine and then maybe a coat of wax? Not sure what to do as I am new to different types of finishes. Let me know your thoughts and what you might do. Thanks

Travis

[Steve Schoene]

I agree that you should apply some kind of top coat over the stain. What you propose will work, though I usually prefer an oil/varnish mix instead of pure BLO. It dries a bit faster, and offers a bit more protection. The look will be almost the same. There are lots of ways to get a good look on a project such as yours, none of them "right" and very few of them "wrong". Experimentation is the key to learning about finishing. Try it on scrap and see how you like it.