Quote Originally Posted by floppyshoes View Post
Tung oil is not the best finish for brushes, but it's still a lot better than no finish at all.

IMHO the best finish for brushes is a hybrid oil/topcoat. an example of such a finish would look like this:
  1. oil, several coats, burnish between coats
  2. lightly sand
  3. shellac wash coat
  4. polyurethane (or other waterproof topcoat)

By using oil and then topcoating, you greatly reduce the chance of water infiltrating through the topcoat (either physically through cracks/scratches/dents or by means of vapor transfer, which is what happens when liquid water is allowed to sit on it)

I have a question about this. I am finishing a set of Jatoba scales. I had put Tung Oil on for the first coat. Then I used Valspar Professional high gloss water based poly for my finish coats. The Valspar went on very nice and leveled well. It dried fast and within an hour I used 0000 steel wool to scuff the finish for the next coat. WOW, I was surprised to see the poly was peeling off the scale. I ended up taking the sand paper and removing all of the poly finish and then went to the hardware store and bought some oil based high gloss poly.
The question I have is: After applying the Tung Oil, is it a imperative to use a top coat? I would like to know what would be the best top coat after using Tung Oil. I see that floppyshoes uses shellac as a top coat. And by the term "wash coat", is that thinned out shellac? Why shellac?
Thanks,
Bill W