Red Oak Finishing

[Scott Rosen]

What's the best "bright" finish for red oak for outdoor decorative use?

[Concordia..41]

Minwax polyurethane - if it's a small outdoor decorative item vs. a gazebo or something, they've even got it in a spray can.

Talk about no brushstrokes :D :D :D

Uh hum, maybe I need to go visit Norkse's confessional thread again...

[NormMessinger]

Back in the old days we'd use a paste filler first. Brush it on thickly with the grain and rub it off across the grain with a gunny sack. Alas, I have not seem paste filler nor gunny sacks for some time. Might be worth checking for since it will take a heck of a lot of finish (high grade spar varnish--in the old days) to fill the pours.

--Norm

[Ed Harrow]

I can attest to the quantity of coats to fill things up. Lots. Six maybe? That's how I'm doing the window sills in "The Lake Room". I thought about filler but you know how it is when you have really well trained varnish brushes, LOL.

[Mike Vogdes]

I used Sikkens on a piece of mohagany outdoor furniture a couple summers ago and can't believe how good it still looks. I used 3 coats of Sikkens cetol and 3 coats of Sikkens gloss on top, It lives on the deck for 3 seasons and looks as good as the day I finished it.

[bainbridgeisland]

Here is an interesting finish method I learned during my apprenticeship in the early 1970's.

Pigment for polyester resin can be mixed with International Paints, thinner #216, to create any color stain that you want. This is followed by 4 to 6 coats of varnish.

The pigments we used came in small tubes of primary colors. The stain can therefore be any color you want to make it. Further, the opaqueness of the stain can be adjusted by how much is added to the thinner.

We used to top the stain with polyurethane varnish. I can't remember what brand.

This is really only varnished wood. I saw some boats that had been done this way that were 4 or 5 years old and still looked great, but you know haw varnished surfaces are...