Paste wax offers minimal protection. While water beads up on it, that is a manifestation of surface tension. It provides nearly zero resistance to water passing through. Polyurethane does not stick well to things. I had to refinish a table like this a few years ago. The owner applied a coat of poly to make it shinier. (File this under: "It sounded like a good idea at the time.") Besides looking terrible, about 1/4 of the table top had poly peeling off. Teak typically has a low-build finish on it. While generally thought to be "oiled" finish, it is usually a low build, very low sheen lacquer. Teak also contains natural oils that inhibit a lot of finishes from curing or curing hard. It needs a little knowledge and extra care in finishing. As I see it, you have a couple of choices if you can't or won't cover it: - Discipline to treat it with more gentleness, use placemats, etc. No finish is immune from physical damage. It's all a matter of degree and type of damage. The strength of the wood and its substrates also becomes a limiting factor. I have seen where people scratch and chip even the "indestructible" finishes. - Take it out and have someone strip and refinish it with a different top coat. What top coat that might be will depend upon the "system" that the place that you go uses, or if you are doing it yourself, what you are able to do based on your skill level, equipment and working environment. Despite this advice, if you choose to apply poly over the top and it does not work, you still have the strip-and-refinish option, it's just that you might be forced into it. The biggest mistake you can make with poly is to apply it too thick and un-thinned. Thin it down up to 50:50 mineral spirits, so you can wipe on the finish with a rag. Very light coats. While you will need more coats to get the same dry thickness, each coat will go on faster and is more foolproof for a beginner than brushing a good finish.

The problem with your "natural route" is that coconut oil is "non-drying" ... it gets gummy and collects dirt. Like the spot in your cabinet where the bottle of salad or olive oil sits. Yes, it looks good for a bit. Beeswax will oxidise and blacken, leaving you with a table with gummy, dirty and/or black spots where the original finish was worn off. Is that what you want? ====== Your problem now is that you worked "some" in and it's going to affect anything else you do because it soaked into the wood. Not much will stick to oily wood, so you now have the problem of removing the coconut oil with something that's capable of dissolving it ... mineral spirits or turpentine or alcohol are the least obnoxious. ====== The classic "beeswax finish" uses 1/3 raw linseed oil, 1/3 grated beeswax and 1/3 turpentine. The linseed oil will dry although the beeswax still will blacken. It's what gives the old oak furniture it's dark "Jacobean oak" look. The steps will be: 1 - Sand lightly to remove the old finish and smooth the splinters 2 - Clean the coconut oil crud off with mineral spirits 3 - Apply the beeswax/linseed/turpentine finish

Not a dining table, but I poly'd our coffee table. First I sanded the top down to bare wood or close to it -- I had to do this because of marker and glue and some other things that came of having used it as a train/craft table for the kids. Then I put on I think 3 coats of a water-based polyurethane. Very very easy, little to no odor and it has held up well so far. The poly looks just like what's on the rest of the table; not sure it would look right if the rest of it had a different kind of finish. I think I used satin. There are dining tables out there that have a poly finish or something similar, I saw them when I was looking last year. Of course the ones I liked best had a wax finish. Oh well. One of them was at Crate & Barrel too; wonder if it was the same one you saw.

"Im sure that would of solved alot of my frustration!!" We have worked hard helping you,will you return the favor? Please explain why you started a new thread without mentioning your previous thread? You came here asking about "bubbles in polyurathane". Talking to you about contamination was the #1 focus in that first thread. HandyMac instructed you to use paint thinner in wipping down but you used water instead. I gave you a long list of instructions on keeping tools and project clean before,during and after finishing. It is that kind of willi nilli behavior that frustrates us in giving best answers. Are you just seeing if we can hit your curve balls or do you fail to realize that complete and accruate information is needed if one wants complete and accurate answers?