First, from the post, I will assume that your dinning table will be from solid wood rough sawn planks. Many comercial tables are made from veneers over a substrate.

There are so many variables that go into this discision making process that it becomes difficult to explain them all here. Bottom line is this, will the hardness of the wood trump your, or my childs, ability to scratch it. I would say no. Even if you have a table made of solid cocobolo wood (its so hard it sinks in water) it can still get scatched by a ten year old with a will to do so :) The question becomes one of balance.

Your table is being custom built. EQUALLY AS IMPORTANT as the material used to make it is the top coat finish applied to it afterwards. It is my opinion and given a choice, do not use a poly finish as a top coat. Use a lacquer. If you have every seen white rings on a table top they are the result of placing a hot item on it and this happens quite easily with poly. Hope this helps.

You are right. I misspoke re: the poly as he has indicated he would use a lacquer. Being able to put a hot cup of coffee on the table WITHOUT a coaster is my concern. We use placemats daily and would use a hot pad if needed for a serving dish but other than that, I hoping the lacquer will withstand the washable crayons, elmers glue and my hot coffee mug. Do you think it will?

My kitchen pictures are attached. I'd like to replace the current table set with a dark finish rectangular table with turned legs and x-back chairs.

With regards to Alder wood then -- perhaps the builder is suggesting that more because of the look of the wood? Is Alder wood always "knotty?" I don't know if that is too knotty for me based on the maple cabinets and cherry hardwood floors.

Hi Kids0709. I have a few of those peski kids as well :)

Todays modern lacquers are far better then they were even a few years ago. If a good one is used it will basically be your best bet. There is only one other type of finish out their, that I know of, that trumps lacquer. Its very expensive and difficult to use. Your everyday clean ups should be no problem. Will you be able to put a hot cup of coffee on the table without concern? A warm cup is okay :)

Adler wood is usually knotty. That's its claim to fame. My opinion, yes to knotty for your current kitchen.

Alder can come in many grades, it depends on where you are getting it. If you already have maple and cherry in your kitchen I woud stick with these for the table as they are harder and will not dent and ding easily. Also I would not use lacquer on a table as it is to soft and water can damage it. The shop I work in makes tables and we finish them with Krystal which is a professional product. It sprays like lacquer but is actually a conversion varnish - it needs to be applied by a professional as it is quite dangerous to use without the proper equipment.

I'm with dale and the conversion varnish thats what we use for all our wood projects we have used it on bar tops its as tuff as nails. Why not use oak for the table?

Good Morning Dale and Rockin, a chemical conversation on a Saturday morning:)

Kids0709 What follows is what I was told by our traveling paint salesman and the chemical engineer he brought with him a while back.

Years ago we sprayed exclusively with a pre cat lacquer. One brought 5 gallon pails of the stuff and just sprayed. The problem with the product is that it was not very good. We needed to get into the 20th century not only with our spray equipment but also with our spray product. We did this in order to compete. We changed over to a post cat lacquer. Why? There are many alternatives out there, polyester, conversion varnish, pour on finish, even very high end polyurethane and we still have the option to change over at any time we choose. The chemical/paint company we us is a company called Chemcraft and the top coat we use is called Plastofix lite (their convertion varnish is called Danspeed Elite).

From a practical shop point of view using a lacquer product for finishing gives us the most flexibility. We don't have to worry about a reaction between stain and paint and top coat if we stay with in the same family of product. Not so with convertion varnish or so I was told. The lacquer we use has a higher solids content then its conversion varnish cousin, very important when actually spraying the product.

The most important thing that sold me on the product, and I asked, was that it was harder, more uv resistant and more water resistant then convertion varnish.

If you would like to see pictures of a solid plank table that we made out of oak that is lacquered please follow this link. http://www.custommade.com/solid-red-oak-confrence-table/by/ge-rodesk/?honeycomb=1

and here is the link to the chemical company: http://chemcraft.com/ click under their products tab.

In the end ask your maker what he is using as a top coat in my opinion either one shpuld give you years of duability.

Good to know RJ the conversion varnish we use is actually the opposite of what you use Ml Campbell's conversion varnish is harder it's more UV resistant and doesn't yellow like most lacquers. I've heard of chamcraft actually i can get it hear. Like i said we have used on bar tops and as you know bar tops get a ton of abuse.

Hi Rockin. You should contact Chemcraft if you can get it out there. Even if you stay with a conversion varnish the Chemcraft product beats the ML Campbell. Or so I was told by the Chemcraft rep:)

Yeah everybody will tell you there product is better I'm happy with what I use I will try the product you mentioned and post results we can get chemcraft out here it won't be hard to get .

RJ do you have those products swapped around it says that Danspeed Elite is the lacquer and that Plastofix lite is the conversion varnish?

Hi Rockin. I may. However they have always told me the opposite ie that Danspeed is the conversion and that Plastofix was the lacquer. I use the plastofix :)

Oh ok I looked it up and that's the way it came up on there website that the stuff you use is a conversion varnish . I have done extensive research and a lot hands on use on this matter lacquer or conversion varnish and poly and waterborne products over the years and there's pros and cons to all of these I can't recommend one over the other I can only use what works for me but I will try the chemcraft and let you know what I think .