I painted our ugly dark oak cabinets several years ago and they seem to be holding up well. My kitchen now looks bright and cheerful, rather than brown and dingy. I like the smooth finish of an oil paint, but oil yellows, so I went on the web to find an alternative and Cabinet Coat paint was mentioned on many painting forums, so I decided to try it. I think good preparation is the key to any paint job. I scrubbed the cabinets, sanded, primed with an alkyd made by Zinsser (OK, so I'm old fashioned) and finished with several coats of the Cabinet Coat paint. So far the finish has held up well. I have a few spots that got banged up, so I will be using an artist's paintbrush to fill in the chips. One thing that helps keep the finish nice is to always use the knobs to open doors and never open doors with greasy fingers. I can't tell you how much I enjoy my bright new cabinets. My kitchen was such a dungeon before and simply painting the cabinets white has made my kitchen a much more pleasant place to work. I was able to obtain it from my local Ace hardware store. Just make sure you stir it very, very well and use a good paintbrush. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet Coat paint

I did our Waterlox countertop several years ago and found that much of the streaking that initially panicked me disappeared as it cured. Waterlox does take a LOT longer to set up than other finishes and if you've done several coats, each one seems to take longer. I left fans running in our kitchen for about a week with three coats. To avoid fibers, I used a lambswool applicator and used it on something else first to get any stray hairs out. If you use a cotton rag, definitely put it into pantyhose. For other finish projects, I've moved to microfoam rollers--foam brushes leave streak marks. I think with WL, one thick coat laid on in one straight application (no rubbing, touching up or blending) and left to sit for three days is probably your best bet.

When you say you like the look of a wax finish, I don't think you can achieve this look by waxing the waterlox. It will if anything make the waterlox shinier. A wax finish is silky, matte/satin, and is applied right on bare wood or over a penetrating stain. Wax finish does not have any surface build. If you wanted to de-gloss the waterlox, if you knew what you were doing, you could use pumice and oil (old school) or a 3-M pad and get a silky finish which could then be waxed. You will not change the appearance of the waterlox in any substantial way by waxing it, just make it perhaps a little more shiny. If you wanted a real wax finish, that boat has sailed. If you wanted a oiled but totally matte finish with good water protection, you could have used 100% pure tung oil, which looks like no finish at all once cured; that would have responded nicely IMO to steel wool+wax treatment. Casey

It's the stain. The technical guide for Zar oil based wood stain states: "Note: Stains and clear finishes will not adhere to shellac or lacquer." Which is not true. They should state that THEIR stain will not stick to shellac. Typically, shellac is used as a grain sealer. But not according to Zar. At any rate, the stain was the wrong choice. Waterlox can be and thinned down 1:1 and used as a grain sealer. It can also be tinted or dyed. A better method to finishing these butcher blocks would have been to use a 50% mineral spirits 50% waterlox for the seal coat. Then dye or add pigment to a small batch of waterlox and use this as the next coat or coats until the color is right. Finish up with another coat or two of straight waterlox.