Larry Jaques spake thus:

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:02:50 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm,
David Nebenzahl quickly quoth:

... I recently refinished a friend's front door, an
oak-veneered Craftsman (genre of architecture, not brand name) that was
severely weathered. When I was buying veneer to patch it, I asked the
people at the hardwood store what they recommended for varnish: they
told me that their brand of water-based varnish was the stuff to use,
and should last 10 years or so. (I forget what brand; maybe McCloskey?)
It wasn't cheap.

Yeah, both poly and acrylic waterborne finishes have a blue hue, while
oil imparts an amber hue. For a Craftsman finish, oil varnish would
have been more apropos, more true from a historic standpoint. Check
out Waterlox Original sometime. It's a rub-on finish made from linseed
and tung oils plus varnish resins. I buy their medium sheen and
degloss with Johnson's wax on a 0000 steel wool pad. It's perfect for
a Stickley finish. 30% ammonia is available at surveyor supply shops
for $7-8 a gallon, if you're into fuming your own quartersawn white
oak to make the look entirely original.

I don't think this would have been appropriate treatment for this door;
it's an entry door which is directly exposed to afternoon sun, as well
as rain in the winter. (I'm trying to spare the homeowner, who's a
friend of mine, having to renew the finish every 6 months or whenever.)
Whatever goes on it has to be really tough.

Anyhow, I followed their suggestion. When it came time to varnish, I was
really disappointed at the look of the varnish, both in the can (it was
milky) and as it went on. It turned out OK, sort of: there were a few
spots of old varnish I couldn't quite remove, and these showed through
as blotches. It looks better than before I worked on it, but I have the
nagging feeling that an oil-based varnish would have blended with the
old varnish better.

It would have, but it taught you a lesson, too. Next time, do take
that extra time to prep better. Use an extension on your scraper
and/or a methylene chloride based stripper if need be, but get those
tough areas better. It's truly worth the extra effort, as prep work
makes 90% of the finish.

In my defense, I tried to remove as much of the old finish as possible,
but I was constrained by two things: working with thin veneer and not
wanting to sand through it or make it peel off (I already had to replace
or reglue large sections where this was happening), and trying not to
turn this into a massive two-week refinishing job. In any case, the end
result was more than acceptable to my friends.


--
Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo. The German Wehrmacht won World War
II. The United States won in Vietnam, and the Soviets in Afghanistan.
The Zealots won against the Romans, and Ehud Olmert won the Second
Lebanon War.

- Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist
(http://counterpunch.org/avnery09022006.html)