Try General Finishes High Performance Topcoat.

I'm experimenting with it on red oak. It very much preserves the natural color of the wood. So much so that I'm wondering how to enhance the grain just a wee bit before I topcoat w/ it. No yellowing (on red oak) whatsoever.

General Finishes contact phone # 800-783-8050. They're located in Wisconsin so Central Time Zone. I've called them before & will give them another call for suggestions on slightly enhancing the grain of red oak.

It's available in satin, semi-gloss and gloss. McFeeley's has the best price that I've found.

McFeeley's

Oh, the stuff is super easy to apply. (I'm using a foam brush but it's sposed to spray nicely, too.) The only complaints that I've read about it is that it maybe dries too fast. I ordered some extender but haven't tried it yet since I'm only doing small pieces so far.

Here is a link that might be useful: General Finishes High Performance Topcoat

Thanks for the suggestion. How many coats do you think will be needed?

I think they suggest three coats so that's what I used. Two coats didn't look like enough so I added the third coat. Just so you know, I've used it only on the face frame of one cabinet so far but I did like the way the finish applies. (It sands really easily and doesn't load up the sandpaper.) I'm still vacillating on whether or not to enhance the wood & need to research how I can control it.

We just tried a sample of the clear poly topcoat in satin and I'm encouraged--it seems to be truer to the wood color than the other acrylic finish we looked at. The folks at General Finishes recommended 1 or 2 layers of gloss finished with a satin. I'll probably go get some gloss and try that on a sample as well.

@miez

what did you end up doing? same quandry here