The tiny url doesn't offer a good enlargement of the close up. First of all you state that you have an "an actual antique Japanese lacquer cabinet", what does the term "Antique" mean to you. In the US the only legal use of the term "Antique", is for customs on items that are over 100 years old. Are you saying your actual antique can be certified to have been made in japan before 1914? The term lacquer is often used for any kind of shiny finish. True Chinese (or Japanese) lacquer is made from sumac sap, and because of it's poisonous content, the liquid lacquer is illegal in the US. Because of the high cost of true lacquer, much of the furniture made in the 20th century may have a single layer of lacquer applied over a composite base. (that would be the blue undercoat). But it is much more common for the 'lacquer' to be black paint and regular varnish applied over a composite base: what was once called "Japanning." Because this piece might have some sumac constituents, I would advise extreme caution if you file or sand it, or if you lose more chips, like you would with removal of asbestos. For that reason, a complete sanding and refinishing is not advised, also true lacquer, after being sanded, may not take well to modern chemical varnishes applied on top. If this piece were mine, I would first infill the crack with spackle, using a scrubbing sponge after it had dried to remove the excess from the edges, and to slightly reduce the height of the divot. The idea behind the spackle is that it would be easily reversible with water. On top of the spackle you may want a base coat of something, watered down acrylic craft paint would do well to seal the porous nature of the spackle, but so would a thin coat of Elmer's glue. Then, like you suggested, a black finger nail polish, with maybe a clear coat polish after it dried. Like you said, this wouldn't 'blend in' completely, but would not be so jarring as the blue or white chips. A museum might be able to get a variance on importing real lacquer from sumac for repairing their treasures, and I do know of one person who smuggled in a small can of lacquer, but you can't expect a restorer in the US to use real lacquer for a repair. I would guess a professional repair would be similar to what I suggested, with adjustments for the materials, perhaps only using water base materials that could easily be removed at a later time if you wanted it. What one puts into this kind of repair should reflect the value of the piece. I could imagine someone just taking a sharpie to it and saying "done". If I understand what you mean by "feathering" it is the little blue lines? That is a result of the lower strata of japanning (black) shrinking more then the over varnish, it cracks and shows the blue composite below. I doubt this was how the piece looked when it was brand new. Considering that the finish on this cabinet is showing this kind of deterioration, we might expect more of the same, and like I mentioned, I would be careful to look for and remove dust and chips from the piece on a weekly basis, just in case, before children or pets get to it, or before I breath it in. This post was edited by Lilylore on Mon, Nov 24, 14 at 23:40

Hmm, I went to talk to the store that sells both the oil paint and the lacquer and actually got a very knowledgable person. Here's what I learned: Oil & lacquer will pretty much have the same durability. Lacquer is preferred by the cabinet maker because they can spray it all in one day because the dry time is really quick. Spraying oil will force the cabinet maker to find a dust free place to set aside my cabinets for days between coats for drying time. The cabinet people will probably have a tougher time working with spraying oil because it sprays differently than oil. I discussed the fact that I have trim work in the room that needs to be the same color and sheen as the cabinets. In fact, the crown molding will go on the cabinets then carry over to the rest of the room. We also have window trim that butts right up against cabinets. If we go with lacquer cabinets and then paint our trim with the oil like usual, they may look different and they will also age differently. Other option is to have the cabinet company do the trim and lacquer it too. But then since we have an old house that requires caulk to fill in gaps, we would have caulked areas that normally I would paint over that can't be lacqured over. Best option to me is just use oil on everything but the cabinet people might not actually do it. Or they might put up a huge fuss and charge me more for drying time. No perfect solution and all lot more things to think about (trim considerations) than I expected. What do those of you who got premade cabinets do if you matched your trim to the cabinets or didn't you bother?

We had ours done a year ago. I had them brushed with oil base BM as I wanted the historic look of the brush in the paint. It is very subtle. I love the way they came out and they have held up great so far, I just wipe them with a dishcloth and soapy water. Hope this helps, caroline

I am pretty hesitant to just let my painter pick the coating. I can't tell you the number of times I have heard of conversion varnish being sprayed in someone's home. I am an amateur finisher at best and I have heard some version of the joke, "Conversion varnish, respiratory distress sold by the gallon" at least 50 times. You don't stick your head inside cabinets when the inside has been finished with conversion varnish even days later, and this is ignoring the whole cancer thing. I recommended Kem Aqua Plus as it is a nice easy product to use and hard to mess up. I suspect an amateur taking their time, and spraying the doors horizontally could spray it pretty easily, even if not quickly. Spraying vertically you need to flash coat it and then come back and lay on the paint, but honestly it is that way with every product. No sprayed on coating is going to be completely without health concerns but I feel they are minimum with Kem Aqua Plus. Having said that, if you are having it done I would try to find your area dealer for ICA Wood Coatings and ask if they have a refinisher in the area that they sell 2k poly to. Barring that the SW Polane 2k Acrylic Waterborne Enamel is OK, so I would ask for someone who is experienced with that. Certainly a 2k poly is going to outperform Kem Aqua Plus in the long run. I wouldn't recommend a primer until I know what you are using for a topcoat, generally the poly's are going to require experience but be better, shellac just sucks to be around and dries brittle, an oil (e.g. Cover Stain) is OK but has slow dry times. However, now that I understand you are paying someone to spray it, I just don't know that it is worth it. Oil based paints are pretty tough and if you have chipping now, coating over that is not likely to fix it. I mean you might get lucky with a 2k poly because they are bullet proof to begin with, but you still relying on adhesion to the same layer rather than substrate and that is probably not going to happen. If this were holding up great and yellowing a bit, I would be gung-ho about it, but it isn't.