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?


--
Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism