Gloss finishes don't have the flatteners to knock down the reflections
and those flatteners obscure the wood. Suggest use gloss and after
the finish cures degloss it with steel wool and let the grain show.

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:34:36 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

Several coats of poly, and then some fine steelwool until you have the matte
you want.

wrote in message
roups.com...
Hi,
I just refinished a dining table that was given to me. The table is
not a great wood piece, so I sanded down the top completely, then
shellaced it then stained it. It looks great now, but now I'm to the
part where I'm stuck. This is my second attempt, at first attempt I
tried to protect it with a satin poly and it turned out really shiny
and not at all what I was looking for. Long story short I ended up
resanding the entire thing, this is my last chance though since I think
the top is a veneer and I doubt it will handle another round of
sanding. So I really need help, how should I protect it with out
getting a shiny or sticky surface or ruining the stain I worked so hard
to get perfect? I've been doing a lot of looking and I thought maybe
tung oil would be my solution, but their is a lot of conflicting info
so now I'm completely confused. This is my first project not using an
all in one stain, and I love the result so far but I'm very
inexperienced. Thanks.