I have always been very pleased with the results. But, since I had a difficult time finding it in some areas we have lived in I now make my own oil finish. I have used the Minwax on old furniture I have taken down to bare wood as well as new furniture. I made 2 cherry night stands in 1990 and used Minwax on them. The finish has held up and they still look pretty much the way they did when I first applied the finish. Fine Woodworking magazine has compared finishes in past issues. They also have information on oil finishes. The finish I make contains linseed oil, thinner and spar varnish. I have also been pleased with tung oil and have that on my cherry kitchen counters. I sand the final coats in with 220 git papaer or use pumice to get a very smooth finish.

What kind of wood are you working with? How is your sister?!

Debbie

The product you are asking about is all right. It's not poly. It's not as waterproof. Lately people believe that if it doesn't start with "poly-" it's not any good. Thing to be aware of is if you are wiping over an oil stain, make real sure that it is fully cured; the solvent in a wipe-on varnish will begin to dissolve oil stains that aren't truly dry. Then you end up with a smudgey swirly finish. That said, the Minwax wipe-on poly is very good, too.
Casey

Thanks, I keep vascillating between trying to use an oil finish vs covering something in ploy/plastic. I used the Minwax Antique Oil Finish on some furniture I made, but that was only 10 months ago, so I don't have a durability track record. I will be doing alot of new woodwork on our remodel and I may have to decide what to use soon. I am tempted to use tung oil on the new oak hardood floor we are installing upstairs. From what I understand: The finish is more satin than gloss, yellows/darkens with age, and repair of damaged spots is just a matter of spreading some more on. I am not too worried about "life" marks on the wood. The rest of the house is 80+ years old and I don't want the new stuff looking too new. Downstairs, our wood has what looks like a gloss varnish, which definitely shows wear and I am sure was done in the last few decades. So, I was thinking if the upstairs looks good with tung oil, we could refinish the daownstairs to match. Any input?

Has anyone used the Minwax Antique Oil finish on kitchen cabinets? We recently had some walnut lumber from our farm kiln dried and my uncle is going to use it to make most of our kitchen cabinets (we are remodeling). We live in a 100 year old farmhouse. I want the cabinets to "match" the house and have an old, hand-rubbed look. If anyone has used the antique oil finish on kitchen cabinets, could you tell me if it's held up well or if you would recommend something else instead. Thanks.

I have used Minwax Antique Oil finish for many years,and my experience has been excellent. An old desk was refinished and the desk top heavily used. The finish finally wore through after 15 years. My house as flooded about 18 inches deep. Several pieces of furniture finished with the Antique Oil came through just fine. Most everything else was destroyed by the acidic flood water. Just wiped off the Minwax furniture and put the pieces back in the house.

We remodeled and put in beautiful cherry cabinets. The cabinet maker told us to use min wax on them. We now have white streaks that don't come off. We put oil over the streaks and they disappear for awhile but always come back. What do we do to fix this???

"Has anyone used the Minwax Antique Oil finish on kitchen cabinets?"

Yes, I used it over 40 years on the original kitchen cabinet in my 1899 brownstone and also on a new oak cabinet I had made on the time. I used it again a few months ago to match some new woodwork to the original. It has held up very well for all those years and worked well, over an appropriate color stain, to match the new to the old–great stuff!