I had an epiphany today concerning Polyshades.

Fellow came in with a table that had at one time been a perfectly
innocuous reasonably well made piece of cheap unfinished furniture, but
it was now brown and streaky and covered with brushmarks and dust blobs
and looked like Hell. I instantly recognized it as Polyshades.
Actually correcting the problems would be more effort than the table is
worth (I mean if it was my table for my own use I'd have fixed it but it
would be more in labor than we'd be likely to get for it). I went over
it with some steel wool to knock down the gloss so the brushmarks didn't
show so badly but it needs a strip and redo if it's ever going to look
decent.

That's where the epiphany came. I realized that Polyshades is one the
most _difficult_ finishes on the market to apply well and this is
probably why it has such a bad reputation. Why? First, it's
translucent--any variation in thickness shows as a color variation.
Second, it dries fast--it doesn't level well and you can't apply it by
brushing it on and wiping it off like you can a stain--by the time
you've got the surface covered it's started to dry. Third, it's got the
good abrasion resistance that's characteristic of polyurethane--sanding
it flat is a pain in the butt. Fourth, the gloss is really shiny--if
there's anything wrong with the finish, you'll see it. Only way to get
it _even_ is to apply enough that it turns into brown paint. Or to
spray it, which most folks aren't set up to do. Or use it on small
projects where a single brush stroke will cover everything.

The big trouble with it isn't that it's a bad product, the big trouble
is that it's sold as something that's easy to use. It's not. If this
same fellow had gone over that table with a regular stain and then the
wipe on polyurethane he'd have likely ended up with a nice looking table
and probably in about the same amount of time. But nobody told him
that.