DerbyDad03 wrote in
:

On Saturday, August 1, 2015 at 10:33:35 AM UTC-4, Leon wrote:
On 8/1/2015 9:07 AM, John McCoy wrote:

But like Mike, I think in modern usage shellac and lacquer are
considered different, and varnish refers to the finishes which
have a polymerization reaction - polyurethane, epoxy, etc.

I'm not real sure if you could find a printed modern definition that
states your last paragraph, or something like that.

I doubt you could. It's just what "I think" when I hear varnish.
I don't think of shellac or lacquer, I think of poly or epoxy
or something like that, and I think that's a common reaction.

This site seems to do a decent job of differentiating between varnish
and polyurethane. Well, at least is seems like a decent job to a
rookie like me.

Stolen without permission from:

http://www.shesails.net/tag/varnish-vs-polyurethane/

That site is comparing what we used to call "spar varnish" with
polyurethane varnish. I wouldn't take it as the definitive
word (and even amoung sailors, in my experience "varnish"
isn't taken to mean exclusively spar varnish, unless it's
obvious from the context).

John