How to get a hard wearing surface without brush marks

[ClintO]

I want to finish some boxes with a hard wearing surface instaed of an oil finish.
I dont want to spray as I dont hav ethe equipment and have no interest in developing the skills.
Is Wipe On Poly the only way to get a surface free of brush marks, it seems to be an awful lot of trouble building up 6 or 7 coats?

[mark david]

Hi I think 6-7 coats is excessive and you can obtain a good finish with 2 or 3 at most although porousity of the wood will have some bearing.

[Christos]

I get a good finish by using a good brush to apply very light coats of poly type finish. I do not load the brush too much and do sand between coats.

[Arron]

You can use Penetrol - and additive that minimizes brush and lap marks. Add a lot of it to ordinary poly and you can pretty much eliminate the brush marks.

Also, wipe on poly does need a lot of coats, but the coats are quick to apply so the amount of labour is much less then it sounds. It dries quickly too, so you can get several coats done in a day.

cheers
Arron

[ClintO]

Is the Wipe on Poly sold at the big green shed and is Minwax the only brand available?
According to the Minwax website there is a water based wipe on, is that one OK to use?

[STAR]

I have never used the water based one. But any water based poly that IIhave used does produce a less glossy finish than the oil based one in my opinion.

While water based is easy to clean up, in the jobs i have done I do not think i will be going back to water. In a few cases the water based seemed to put on a heavy plastic finish not glass like, like oil based poly.

Still, it could just be me and i would be happy to hear what others think.

Pete

[Master Splinter]

I've found that water based polys - because they are clearer than oil-based - look ok on light timber, but on anything dark they tend to look, well...crap..the colour shift is rather unflattering.

[nrb]

As mentioned Penetrols the go