AQUA COAT Clear Lacquer, Water-Based Wood Finish, Satin, Quart

Normally, I use oil based poly for most everything or a nitrocellulose based spray lacquer for musical instruments, but I wanted to try something different, and stumbled across the Aqua Coat clear lacquer. Having used their grain filler on a number of projects, I decided to give this a try on a maple/purlpeheart chess board and was very impressed. It went on very easily and dried quickly, allowing for multiple coats in a day. I found it applied and looked better than the water based acrylics, such as Minwax Polycrylic. Is it as nice as a nitro based lacquer? No, but it is darned good and much easier to apply, without all of the VOC odors. I think I'd stick to the nitro lacquer for a guitar, especially an acoustic.

I'm grateful for the folks at Aquacoat. I love the videos they have to introduce their product. I will give you some background. This video is for artists who are interested in using Aquacoat to cover their artwork. Aquacoat is a great product. I have tested a few marine varnishes for my artwork I bought the Satin. There is a low if any smell and it's dries satin with a touch of gloss. It's quick drying and a Quality product. I use gloves and a sponge to apply about 3 coats for coverage. I may do a video on my YouTube to show it dry. My picture is of it wet and just applied. I rated it 5 stars.

Very low odor, easy to put on and doesn't change the color of the wood!

Low, low odor. No thinning required. 3 coats with sanding in between coats. Powders nicely.during sanding. Lacquers levels out nicely.

The only benefit is low odor. 3 or more times the work to get somewhat close to traditional lacquer.