A friend has an OLD walnut table that had a very badly damaged lacquer
finish. The only way to fix it was to strip it down to the bare wood
and now I need to re-finish it.

Since it was finished once, the pores are already filled and it won't
really take stain.

I have worked out and tested a scheme to do the job. It works and has
a highly polished finish.
However, his wife has expressed a desire for a finish that is not
highly polished. Here is what I have done so far (on a test piece of
wood)

1) I found that using just finish coats created a muddy and dark
finish. I started over
and applied a coat of "light golden oak" dye and rubbed it
out pretty hard. This gave the
a nice lightened orange tone

2) I followed that with a sealer coat of amber shellac.

3) Applied 5 coats of water borne lacquer.

4) sanded up to 2000 grit.

5) used liquid car polishing compound

6) applied 2 coats of wax

The result is nice highly polished finish. The dye gave the
finish a lot of "life". The only negative is that a finger nail can
make an impression in the surface. Is that normal, or did I put the
lacquer on too heavy. ( The test was done with a brush. The table
will be sprayed and I will be able to control the thickness better.)

The friend's wife does not desire a highly polished finish. How do
I get there from here? I have been putting this job off because I
don't want to screw up the table and need to strip it again. But you
can only put off a good friend for a few years.


Len