It's been awhile since and it might have changed?
I bought a quart of Minwax polyurethane. On the can is says "clear". Is it acutally "clear". The old suff I would buy would give a slight amber tint.
link to can pic
Any oil based varnish or poly varnish will have some degree of amber to it. The amber comes from the linseed oil used to manufacturer the finish.
If you want a true non-color (water clear, use a waterborne acrylic poly. But, test it on some scrap before committing to its use.
That's what I thought, I didn't know the technicals beyond the reason, so it seems it's just marketing.
follow up question. so is the oil based more durable than the water based acrylic or does it not matter in terms of durability?
Kimel;
Generally accepted that Oil Based Finishes are more durable than Waterborne. Though for Chemical resistance certain Waterborne finishes are superior to oil -- i.e. Endurovar. Howard will likely follow up with more technical information.
Jake
The difference in durability between OB and WB varnishes is getting less and less with time. I use WB varnish almost exclusively now and have spent quite a bit of time testing them vs. some OB products. If you want a WB varnish that is as durable as most OB varnishes look no further than General Finishes EnduroVar. It is unaffected by nearly anything that it would be exposed to in a kitchen or bathroom, including ammonia containing cleaners. In my testing it was more durable than OB polyurethane varnish.
John
This question certainly has opinions on both sides. I think John was absolutely correct about the difference is getting less and less over time as manufacturer's improve the waterborne finishes. I also agree that the Endurovar is probably the current state of the art in durability in a waterborne. Flexner wrote an article in Woodshop News (I think) a little over 2 years ago, and his opinion at that time was that generally speaking the oil based finishes still have an edge in durability. That's also my opinion, but the truth is that quality oil based finishes are getting harder to find in most of the country and we are only left with the waterborne varieties. They are so close now it would only matter in some specific circumstances; so I guess I no longer fret all that much about it and just try to come up with what is best suited for the project at hand.
I feel—although I haven't done specific tests—that the very top end oil based finishes and the top end WB finishes are pretty much same same. I have a gallon of the new (at least it was when I bought it) GF conversion varnish and am looking forward to testing it against: EnduroVar, Arm-R-Seal (oil based) and Crysrtalac Poly-Ox. However; I feel that most of the oil based and water based are significantly inferior to the top end finishes.
What is the application? What environment? Vertical surface or a horizontal surface?
What is the substrate?
I think we need more information to give on point advice.
It's a electronics cabinet with the shelf.
Soft Maple. using a dye to give it a java color. will be seeing some heat dissipation from speakers, dvd player, roku player.
I'm probably overthinking this given it's application but that's what I tend to do.
I wonder if this actually is just as durable as the regular stuff.