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.

So, what you seem to be saying is that if the center panel is flat, then veneer should be fine? Our Omega Dynasty II door (Anson) will have full 1/4" furniture-grade veneer center panels. From what I can tell, the rest of the door is solid wood. Is 1/4" a decent "thickness" for veneer? Our wood is cherry stained in mandarin orange w/coffee glaze. It was mentioned that sometimes the stain doesn't "take" the same on veneer as on solid wood...does anyone have any first-hand experience if this is true of the cherry woods? [I know, it's probably tough making this call w/o seeing it...but maybe someone out there has seen Omega's Dynasty II veneers and can speak from experience...here's hoping!] I'm also wondering now if the drawer fronts will also have the veneer panel--but I don't know b/c their site also says: (B) Solid Dovetailed Drawers Drawer fronts are solid hardwood (MDF if opaque) and are attached to a 5/8" hardwood drawer box with dovetailed joints on all four corners. All drawers are sealed and top coated for a fine furniture look. There's no distinction made b/w Omega custom & Dynasty...so, it sounds like the center panel in the drawer fronts ARE sold wood, no veneer center panel. Does anyone know this for certain? (My KD is out of town this week so I cannot ask her.) As a matter of fact, the only difference I could find b/w Omega Dynasty/Dynasty II is the veneer center panel on doors...everything else seems the same. I hope this is true! I plan to replace the Anson doors with Artesia doors when we save up money again...it's one of the "scrimps" I made (I tried to "scrimp" on things I can replace or do later.) TIA if you can help!

There are several problems here as I see it. First and foremost being the fact that someone let these out of the shop like this. That right there is very concerning. As LWO stated this attempt at a "Henerybuilt " look was done by a shop that is not capable of that level of work. I've done this kitchen a few times. You have to be well versed in all aspects of the trade to pull this off well. Mostly you have to care even if it cost you. As far as the defects most of what I see is glue over spray that was not properly cleaned off then showed up when a clear coat was applied. This banding was not done with a machine but by hand with contact cement spray. An edge bander doesn't leave that kind of glue behind or it would be pointless. This glue needed to be cleaned off with a solvent and sanded carefully. These are common problems with low-tech equipment and unskilled labor. There could also be some burn through of the veneer where it meets the banding which is where that is going to happen when you are trying to level out the face especially if what I suspect what was used was off the shelf pre laid-up walnut plywood veneer which is really thin. This also has to do with the dent and ding issue. The thin veneer but mostly the substrate it's bonded to. The way a company like Henerybuilt and the way I also do it is to use selected architectural veneer in raw bundle form and have it laid-up yourself. The quality and thickness of the veneer is much higher and you can request any substrate you want like Medex which is what I like to use. I wouldn't ever use the 1/8" wood banding (either does Henerybuilt) don't like to see a seam around the door. Just use the thicker edge banding 1.2mm and blend it in. Sorry none of this what should have been done helps you right now but the more you know the better you can make your case. The main issue is the glue and the clear coat. Never heard of catalyzed enamel unless you mean catalyzed varnish. Don't have a lot of experience in extreme temperatures (it's 80 today here in LA) but I know there can be all kinds of curing problems and the materials have a recommended range of use. Even here many people use equipment to heat the material and temp controlled rooms for a better finish. As far as a fix without knowing exactly what was done it's hard to say if anything can be done. Stripping off the finish and cleaning the glue if veneer isn't damaged then re-coating is a long shot. Making new doors is probably the way to go. I would just address the issue of the discoloration with them and see what they have to say about that and how they plan to correct it before I got into telling them how to do their job correctly. Let us know.

Planning to buy a stain marker too from walmart, as I have gift card. Should I get dark walnut or red oak or red mahogany, leaning towards the red oak. Will also get the guardian wood repair filler sticks. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Guardsman-Wood-Repair-Filler-Sticks-with-Sharpener-5-count/21296155