Hi, I'm making a piece of furniture with 'woven' strips of various metals (copper, stainless, bronze etc), I need to preserve the polished finish of the strips, so I'm looking for a coating or something.

The other issue is - do I coat before 'weaving' and risk cracking / scraping it while using the prepped materials, or just spray the whole thing when its done and risk missing bits???

Cheers, Al.

Clear satin urethane out of a rattle can works pretty well. I would suggest precoating everything, let dry overnight then assemble, followed by touching up any spots that get dinged.

Thanks for the idea.

How well do you think it would last on, for example, the bacxk of a chair where people's backs rub against it?

I guess it would matter less in these areas, as they are constantly being polished.

Cheers, Al.

I'm not really sure about high traffic but I have used Varithane for over 25 years on natural iron and about the only complaint I've had is that the older recipes started to yellow and peel after about 5-6 years in the sun. I'm told the manufacturers have recently improved this weakness but of course, we won't know until 5-6 years from now...;-)

Automotive Clear Coat, comes in spray cans at the auto parts store.