Thread: I'm sure this has been asked before - - but

If the table shows little sign of a finish, and if it is English Oak, it could be just plain wax which was a popular finish on Oak. Wax will repel any film-type finish you apply to the table. If it is a wax finish, you may be lucky enough to remove sufficient of it (with lots of patient swamping and wiping with turps) to allow a coat of shellac to seal it.

After that, you could either keep going with the shellac or apply an oil-based finish. Nothing good has ever come of water-based varnishes on furniture - and they're not much chop on floors either for that matter.

Thanks Woodwould,
I'm humbled to have been addressed by someone with so many posts under their belt! Thanks.

It could well have been wax to start with and I sure did swamp it with turps and try and clean it over a couple of weeks.

I am concerned whether very small quantities of the water-based material which I think I can see deep into the grain would cause other things to not adhere - like shellac or a mineral/solvent based finish.

Thanks again.
Dave

No need to feel humble at all. If the water-based varnish has adhered to the original surface, then I think you'r in luck - in as much as it indicates the finish wasn't wax, or at least if it was, you've managed to remove it sufficiently for the varnish to stick.

This is now unchartered water for me, so perhaps scrub as much of the water-based varnish off and try some shellac - shellac is very ameniable and forgiving.

The remains of your waterbased finish will let go with some metho. It attacks waterbased coatings, acrylics in particular. Like everything the longer its been on the hard it will be to remove.

Always found on old stuff, you never really know whats been on there and what your adhesion problem is. Could be wax, silicone (Mr Sheen was big once) or anything else we don't know about. A mix of metho and turps usually shifts pretty much everything. Sounds odd but they actually mix reasonably and especially if you're using 100% metho the turps tends to slow down the evapouration rate.

Would still also run with the seal it with shellac theory though, its more forgiving that most modern finishes.

Regards.

Thanks guys,
I feel a lot happier with your suggestions . . I certainly will give the metho/turps suggestion a go.

Dave