Once you have your furniture stained its time to put on your clear coat. The finish clear coat comes in many different varieties.
The most common one would be varnish, varnish is a relatively soft clear coat and is not meant for much surface wear resistance.
Then there’s shellac which I really never use for clear coating wood. But if you, do make sure it’s fresh because old shellac doesn’t dry quickly or sometimes it doesn’t even dry if it’s too old. Drying quickly though is a bonus because it does not attract dust (the longer it takes for clear coat to dry the bigger the chance for dust settle on it).
Then there is lacquer. Lacquer is the preferred clear finish or pigmented finish in the furniture industry. It dries very quickly (so there will be no dust accumulation). This leaves a good strong finish. For small jobs you can buy a spray can, and for something a little bigger you might consider buying something called brushing lacquer. This stuff had something put into it to make it dry a little slower allowing you time to brush it on. The other problem with lacquer paints is, it has heavy fumes and should be done in a well ventilated area.
And finally there is urethane this is the toughest of the clear coats its resistance to moisture and stains. Urethanes come in both water and oil base. I generally use this type of finish it doesn’t dry as quick as lacquer but it doesn’t give you a headache from the fumes. The trick to getting this stuff to dry quickly and the way I usually do this I apply thin multiple coats. These thin coats don’t have to be perfect since what you miss on the first coat you’ll get on the second coat and finally completely get it on the third coat. (Thin coats are better because they dry quickly, they don’t leave brush marks or ruler marks it has to be so thin that you are not even sure that you are leaving anything on the woods almost).
You can do a light sanding between these coats with a very fine sandpaper something like 320 or 400 grit.
Note: it is important to read the instructions on the can to give you a better overview of the product and how they suggest on applying it. I find when it says on the can the “drying time” this is based on a certain material thickness of the clear coat applied. But when you are putting on the very very thin coats it dries much quicker for a re-coat.
