DIYbanter - advice on table top finish

On Jun 4, 3:15*pm, John wrote:
On Jun 4, 1:40*pm, Joe wrote:

On Jun 4, 12:06*pm, "john hamilton" wrote:

I have a dining table top with a repaired veneer finish. It has had three
coats of waterbased Ronseal called 'Diamond hard varnish' put onto to it.
Trouble is, that if water is not wiped off staight away from this varnish
(and say gets trapped under a flower vase of water); it creates a white ring
stain.

I want to put on an *oiled* based coat and phoned ronseal technical help
line to see if it was ok to paint their oil based 'ultra tough varnish' on
top of the water based diamond hard varnish. They said it was ok to do so.

I forgot to ask them if the oil based ultra tough is a *polyurathane*
varnish or not, and their office is now closed for the weekend. (i want to
do it this weekend). I cannot find whether it is or not a polyurathane
varnish from their website.

Is this ultra tough varnish likely to be more *scratch resistant* than the
diamond hard varnish already on the table or not, would you say?

Also it comes in three finishes; gloss, satin and matt. I would prefer to
use the matt, but have been told by someone that usually gloss is more
hardwearing than matt paints. Do you think that it would make much
difference between gloss and matt with this ultra tough varnish? * *Thanks
for any advice.

You may have made a poor choice of finishes for your table top. For
really tough and scratch resistant coatings, research bar varnishes.
There are few environments that take more abuse than a bar does, so
what works there should be perfect for your table.
As a general rule, most water based polyurethanes are somewhat less
durable than oil based.

Joe

You might want to post this on the wreck (rec.woodworking). *You'll
likely get some good expert advice from there.

John

Whoops, I feel sheepish, this already is on the wreck... Should have
checked if it was crossposted. (and again, I have nothing actually
useful to say on the actual topic of the post....)