Finishing old barn wood white oak

[Bevans]

I have read and learned a lot from the members on this forum and am still very much a novice when it comes to finishing and am asking for some advice/options for a project I amd completing. I made a dresser from wood I milled and dimensioned from old barn joists made of white oak. The wood is a beautiful Amber color with nice grain. I would like advice for products that will; (1) provide a similar penetrating stain and look as BLO, (2) help seal the grain pores and (3) provide a nice water based finish.

I have had problems in the past when I sprayed General Finishes water based products over BLO even after waiting 10 days to 2 weeks. It looked like the BLO lifted from the oak in places and even after resanding down to bare wood and and respraying it helped but some areas still had noticeable blotches.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Bruce

[Stobes21]

BLO can take weeks or even months to fully cure enough to topcoat with a water base. Shellac is a nice sealer between oil and water but you don't want to topcoat the BLO anyway until it is fully dried. So if you go that route again I'd give it at least a month to dry and then seal with shellac before top coating.

If you want to skip the BLO I think enduro-var has an amber tint that is supposed to mimic the tint you get from an oil based finish. I haven't used it though so I don't know how close the look comes to BLO though.

I would say in my case I would go with something like arm-r-seal. It gives that warmth and depth of an oil finish but with good protection and dry time is reasonable. But it is an oil based varnish and you specified you want a water base.

[Bevans]

Thanks for the responses. I was thinking waterbased finish because spraying gives me a much better look and is a easier clean up in my opinion. I have tried wipe on poly and arm-R-seal and just could not get the nice leveled look...streaks were a big problem for me. I would also like to seal up the open grain. Is there a need to do that step if I used endurovar? Also in no hurry so BLO used sparingly and waiting a couple weeks is no problem either. Basically, I would like to make sure I get a nice "amberish" look and then be able to spray a waterbased finish if my 1st choice.

Again, thanks for your advice and suggestions....much appreciated.