"charlie b" wrote in message
...

Why SHINY!? More specifially, why make the whole piece shiny? OK, so
having the visible wear parts easy to keep clean and looking nice might
make sense. But why make ALL the visible surfaces shiny? Why not, on
surfaces that don't require "shiny", use a finish that "just" pops the
grain to show off the beauty of the wood without changing its colors and
feel much? Why try and make wood look like it's under glass? Why not
just use "wood grained" formica type stuff if that's what you want?


You've swung at the wrong nail. The reason for shiny is that it is the
natural result of reflection from a flat surface. It's the flat surface
that we want, and we want, where the incident light doesn't reflect back
into our faces and shine, to look right through the finish with minimum
interference. That's what "pops" the grain, the lack of interference and
light scatter, which, of course, are not possible without a smooth surface.

Of course, it has been a practice in furniture-making for centuries to
polish the most visible surface and neglect the others by merely protecting
them. After all, they aren't in the same plane, and would never "shine"
simultaneously with the same light source.