I like wood working, love it. I hate finishing. Finishing is an art in itself and can take much longer and more effort than actually building the damn thing…..

But I do finish out of necessity. Mark covered the sanding part. 320 is as fine of a grit paper as I ever use, even for high gloss finish work. Use an orbital sander and not one of the cheap bastards that wiggle in one direction.

After you are done sanding, you can stain it to suit your preference. I use Minwax stains. I prefer to apply them by hand in a wipe on / wipe off manner. I just put the surgical gloves on; use a shop rag and a bucket. Get the rag saturated, rub the stain all over the thing, let it sit for about twenty minutes, then wipe off excess stain with a clean shop rag. Then let the stain dry for 12 hours minimum.

I do not like the poly’s that have stain added to them. They are a down right pain in the ass to use. They set up too quick so you end up with a non-uniformly finished product.

I find oil based poly’s and other clear coat finishes much, much easier to apply than water based. I have never been able to do a table top with water based products and not have tiny bubbles and runs or brush marks. I suppose if you can spray it, it may be easier to use. I don’t have a spray booth, so I have to use a brush. However, I tend to use water based products mostly because the clean up is easier. You just wash the brushes in the sink afterwards. So….you need to decide if you want easy clean up and do your best with water based, or go oil based.

You also need to decide if you want a satin, semi gloss or gloss finish. As you go towards glossy, the difficulty increases. Satin hides a lot of sins and you can usually get away with two coats. If you want high gloss, you’ll be doing at least four coats.

Apply the first coat and let it dry. (water based dries much quicker). Use 400 grit paper or 000 steel wool to buff the clear coat. Water based products will “raise the grain”, so you’ll probably sand most of the little wood fibers down with most of the top coat. Apply another coat and buff again. Keep doing this till it’s done. Only you and your patience level will determine when done is done.

As a side note, I just noticed that Minwax has a rub on poly out. I have not tried it yet, but I will be pretty excited if it works well. Using brushes sucks……

………..I hate finishing.