In .com,
David Nebenzahl spewed forth:
On 7/23/2009 5:06 PM Leon spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...

After much arduous searching, I've found it, my Xanadu, my
Shangri-la, the sine qua non of varnish. And all the time it was
available right at my little local Ace Hardware store.

Some background: My preference for finishing and refinishing wood,
when appropriate, is regular old oil-based varnish. Hate
polyurethane; don't have spray equipment for lacquer (which I used
when I worked on guitars). I've been nursing a quart can of
McCloskey varnish for about 10 years now, and it's getting
depleted. So I started looking around for something to replace it
with.

Gosh Dave, finishes do go bad. If you have been using a 10 year old
quart of finish you may have been missing out on more modern
finishes. The product that the store had "1" of may have been way
past it's shelf life.

Well, that's the point--actually 2 of them:

1. Another great thing about good old-fashioned oil-based (or
"solvent-based" if you prefer) varnish is that it has, as far as I can
tell, a near-infinite shelf life, provided it's carefully sealed
between uses. I've used varnish that was actually older than that and
it was still fine.

2. My point is that I prefer this old-school stuff to more modren
finishes. Certainly to that crap I got from Cabot, which is apparently
the latest technology.

Anyway, I use a bit more than 1 quart every 10 years. ;~) , but
have been having good luck with General Finishes for the last 30
years and more recently Lawrence McFadden products. IIRC Lawrence
McFadden products are only available on line however they are a
family owned company that has been around longer than me.

Do they make a traditional oil-based varnish? Any links?


not McFadden, but

http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/cata...br=627&atomz=1