On Dec 26, 11:57 pm, "Douglas R. Hortvet, Jr."
wrote:

Had planned to use a tung oil finish on red oak to be used as a model display stand -
indoor use only, and after reading the many posts on the use of this product - and those
called tung oil finishes, not confident this is the best way to go.

Decide how the stand will be used and maintained, then tailor your
finish to suit that need. If it is to be dusted and cleaned
frequently, tung oils and their cousins are not the way to go as they
will not fill any pores in the oak. This means that once the fine
dust gets in them over a period of years, you won't get it out.

From my limited understanding, a poly finish is not preferred.

Why? With today's modern finishes, I would hate to live on the edge
of difference between some of resin finishes the these days. After
application, I can't tell the difference between a regular long oil
varnish (not talking spar here) and poly after they dry. Usually, the
poly is harder, but not always.

Don't be spooked by those that simply parrot what they hear about the
correct way to finish projects. If you see a nice poly job with the
proper sheen you will be surprised how warm and soft it will feel.

The wood has been stained using Minwax's wood finish product.

If this is the oil variety, mind Mark's post above about beading and
drying. That particular stain can easily take a couple of weeks to
completely dry if you are in humid conditions. Wiping, brushing or
padding a finish could be your undoing as the solvents in the finish
will lift the stain colorants up into the finish.

And since the above types of application are usually performed with
thinned finishes raising the VOCs and making it "hotter", it can
easily remove your stain job.

Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated.

If this is a model stand for viewing of your work, why not use
lacquer? This is the traditional finish for furniture, and all kinds
of other mill work. You can buy the lacquer in rattle cans and spray
it on, and second coat in under 1/2 hour. Build the finish where you
want it. Allow it to dry hard for a couple of weeks and you can knock
down the gloss to the desired reflectivity with scotch brite pads.

Unless you buy upper end steel wool, I wouldn't use sw unless you
clean it first in naptha or something similar. Sw is treated from the
factory with different kinds of waste oil to keep it from rusting;
this can end up on your project.

An alternative is to buy some poly semi gloss in rattle cans. This is
easy to spray. You have to wait a long time for recoats, but the long
working makes it easy to control the finish application.

When I need a quick finish on a small project, I use rattle cans, and
have found them to be very satisfactory.

Spraying would keep you from lifting the finish as well. However, if
you use poly spray unless you wait until the stain is completely dry,
you can still see some of the beading Mark referenced, even when
sprayed. With lacquer, the finish will dry so quickly that it doesn't
bead the stain unless you really LOAD up the material when spraying.

Good luck!

Robert