General Finishes High Performance Water Based Topcoat, 1 Pint, Gloss

Used on oak stair treads and trim over dark stain. Seems totally clear, did not change the color. Excellent results with HVLP gun, no thinning needed. Very forgiving; a few oversprays formed milky white puddles, but still dried quickly and evenly. Runs can be smoothed with a brush and still dry smooth. Also easy to brush - I applied generous coats but still dried smooth. Easy cleanup with soap and water. It did dry quickly in my spray gun so I had to clean some areas with a toothpick, but scraped off easily. Treads have only been installed for two weeks but I expect the finish to hold up. This is very expensive but well worth it in my opinion, will buy again.

It’s a great product, I watched several of their online tutorials so that I would use it as correctly as possible, and the results have been great. I used java gel stain and gloss top coat on my dining table and it looks great! And has held up fairly well (with the exception of my 3 yr old and a fork in one spot) after a year of use I don’t plan on having to sand it down to refinish it for years. Bottom line. I highly recommend this product. If you’re on the fence about it, do it!

Finally a water based finish that works well. Put this overtop an golden oak oil based stain (after 2 weeks drying time). At first I was hesitant when I opened the can and saw the milky white color. It dried clear, uniform and glossy finish. Water based was simple to clean up. Water based was not quite as forgiving as oil based for a brush stroke free finish, but was pretty close. The low vapor was a huge plus for a large built in indoor project. Much better than water based formulations from a few years ago, in my opinion.

Works great on my banisters.

The product seems fine, but the packaging and shipping were terrible. I had to send it back the first time because the can was bent so bad, I didn't open it because I could have not got the lid back on. the second order was about as bad, the can was bent again but I thought I could get the lid to reseal. my second problem was after a while the inside of the lid kept flaking off with the gray paint liner and rust getting into the product. so I cleaned a 1 gallon Min wax can I had that was a plastic container and strained the finish into the plastic can, It is working fine for me now. It was a lot of trouble and wasted finish.

Although General Finishes puts out an easy to use/apply product, I found that the high gloss finish did not remotely compare to the mirror-like, super high gloss, super rugged finish of exterior grade traditional varethanes applied with a china bristle brush. The product dries very quickly which does not give it enough time to level off and brush strokes are apparent no matter how quickly applied. You also have no time to "work" the finish which is difficult over large, flat surfaces like a table top. The product is smooth to the touch and rugged when dry but the gloss level is definitely not the highest gloss. The water clean up is a huge plus and the ease of use is certainly great but I would not recommend it on large pieces of furniture as it seems inferior on build up and rub out than traditional polys.

Beautiful finish. I applied 4 coats and it turned out great.

Very easy to use. Dries very quickly, sands like a dream - virtually no clogging of sandpaper - and buffs to a mirror gloss. It does require some getting used to if you're accustomed to solvent-based finishes like nitrocellulose lacquer because the solids content is so much higher - it's very easy to get runs and sags while spraying if you try to get a full wet coat (I'm still looking for the right touch...) But again, any runs/sags are easily sanded off. Additionally, I find that the appearance ("depth") of the finish is greatly enhanced by using a sealer coat of shellac before applying this as the topcoat (as has been the case with all the water-based finishes I've used over the years).