Finishing oak

[Adrian Thompson]

I'm making a coffee table in oak and would like a light coloured finish - can anybody provide advice please?

 

[Fitzroy]

Personally I don't see that as a very light oak finish. It is however quite brown for oak, I think oak tends to have more red/orangy tones. Oil finishes will tend to darken wood more than water finishes. I had some good success with PolyVine acrylic varnish, keeping a light oak colour, the finish is however a definite varnish not a wood feel.

 

[eribaMotters]

I'm making a coffee table in oak and would like a light coloured finish - can anybody provide advice please?View attachment 148659

I'm totally in agreement with Fitroy. Acrylic/water based will tend to keep the wood lighter in both the short and long term. I use it on Birch plywood for this very reason, but you can tell it's a varnish.
I have just oiled an oak surface with Osmo Top Oil - Clear Matt 3058. After ?? year of using Danish Oil I'm now a total convert. Yes it is expensive but it's a joy to use and so easy to get a wonderful finish. The colour of the finished surface is slightly lighter to the example photo you posted.

Colin

 

[Agent_zed]

I've been using osmo oil for some oak door and window frames that I wanted to keep as light as possible. It obviously does darken it but not as much as something like danish oil. Osmo do a white oil but that is adding pigments.

When I made my oak bed I wanted something that wasn't full of chemicals so I made my own wax with bees wax and safflower oil (a semi-drying oil), which seems to have worked well but again it did darken the wood a bit.

 

[eribaMotters]

Adrian,
this is what the Osmo Oil comes up like. I gave the oak top three coats. The drawers had two coats of acrylic floor varnish.

Colin

 

[Reffc]

Another vote for Osmo Oil. If I want greater contrast and colour in the grain then I use Liberon Fine Finishing Oil which really makes the grain pop. Otherwise I use clear Osmo Poly-X. Of the water based ones, I can vouch for General Finishes Top Coat which is very good. The main difference between the finishes is that water based will go on and self level using a brush or sponge and take only a few coats (3 at most) but as they coat rather than soak in, you're applying a surface varnish finish where as oils will penetrate to some extent and rightly or wrongly I always felt this helps to nourish the wood surface as well as producing a more natural feel. If oiling, I leave for at least a week to cure after my last coat, then burnish with something like Liberon Black Bison clear wax for a lovely sheen. When finishing Oak, I also burnish the surface after a light sanding using a smooth oak block before applying the finish.

 

[Oscar43634]

I use Osmo Raw to keep lighter woods as natural as possible, works well with birch ply not tried with oak however.

 

[Farm Labourer]

So I'm a convert. Until earlier this year, I used Osmo. Now I will only use Rubio Monocoat. Same principle as Osmo but only one coat and it comes in something like 64 shades. Pure is the "natural". Here's a table I may have previously posted.

 

[Hornbeam]

To keep a light colour I would use either an acrylic sealer with wax or and acrylic sealer with a clear acrylic.
Osmo is a very simple finish but personally I find teh fumes a bit unpleasant
I am a believer in Danish oil but it needs quite a lot of work compared to OSMO

 

[Reffc]

I agree with you there. Once I tried Liberon FF Oil years ago, I never really looked back. I guess if falls into "Danish Oil" category although I find the end result better than most other D/O's I've used. Osmo Poly-X clear is the only other finish I use these days