The finish woodworkers have been waiting for? 

Hey everyone - a lot of questions about automotive ceramics in the comments section. I stumbled across the below video prior to filming mine and he did not have good luck, hence me not considering them. My hunch is - this isnt a product you want to cheap out on - but I could be wrong. I would be interested in hearing feedback from you all and it could warrant a follow up. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CzgENC529Ds.html

The fact that you are free to say "It sucks" about Blacktail Studio products (I adore the guy!) is already a good thing. Thank you for ALL your videos and dry humor (Canadian-Frenchie here loves it)

It would be interesting to try the actual automotive ceramic coating buffed into wood.

Thanks for another thoughtful video. A note on needing a respirator for products stating they contain no VOCs. All a statement of 0 VOC means is that a product contains no Volatile Organic Compounds, or no volatile compounds that contain carbon and are regulated as a VOC. What you are experiencing, and what some VOC meters are probably detecting, are volatiles that do not contain carbon. Ammonia for instance isn't something you want to breath in a lot of but isn't a VOC.

Loved this. Thank you for all the work it took to bring this information out to folks. I'm indebted.

I am not a woodworker. I'm a casual dude who has recently gotten into making desks, shelves, and other practical items around the house. I really enjoy videos like this and others to get to the bottom of all of the competing narratives with explanations and examples that are approachable. For what it's worth, I just finished a desk for my kids with Natura Onecoat and Rustic Lumber Hydrocoat. It's definitely the hobbyist budget package. I got the introductory price on the hydrocoat so together it was $110. That's certainly more expensive than other finishes, but it felt approachable as a hobbyist looking for ease of application and protection. It ended up having a satin (semi-gloss) sheen that I think is a nice happy medium. I would not be surprised to see a pricing war happen in this space. All of the companies making this for the automotive market might start tweaking their formula (or branding) for wood if this catches on. Not only that, but I could see that makers of Natura Onecoat getting involved. The company behind it is called MCT Chem. If I recall correctly, they once sent out a representative to a machine shop I was working at and asked to look at all of our most used chemicals. They offered to match or CREATE a formula for anything we used a lot of. It seems that breaking into existing markets is kind of their thing... One way or another, I think there will be a lot of competition here.

YEOW, I just looked at the price. You can buy a couple of tools for the price of a bottle or two. Your reviews are ALWAYS spot on and non-biased. Thanks! !! !!!

How about longevity? I'm not sure why this never gets pointed out with all these ceramic top coats. It's an ultra thin layer of glass that has to be reapplied regularly on automobiles where it has a chance to bond to painted metal. How often will it need to be reapplied to something like a wooden table that has a surface that expands and contracts and gets wiped down regularly with cleaning products? Also, it seemed like all your stain tests were acidic products. If you dig deeper on this front, incorporate something alkaline; that cuts through ceramic coatings faster than acid. Take that into consideration when cleaning your nano-coated table too (I wouldn't use something like Simple Green for example)

I'm with you on the finish. Thank you for making it clear. I hope you are willing to go deeper on this issue. It is so informative. What a great video.

This is definitely the most detailed video on testing nano coatings. Makes me want to try the n3 nano. Thanks!

Thanks for all the work you put into this Jon!

Very helpful, good discussion! Thanks, Jon.

Thx! And very nice that finally someone did it! A comparison and review of ceramics for wood.

I love this channel. Entertaining, informative and trustworthy. One of my favorites.

I like the higher contrast but I am also a weirdo and prefer a matte satin finish over gloss. Cool video always a pleasure to hear your point of view.

The Mark Rober of wood working. Great video!

Fantastic overview of these! Nice work

I have used the Carbon Method on my table saw top and it is amazing. I have not tried it on wood but I am waiting on applicators to apply it to my band saw.

Great video! Thanks for making it!

I have a table supposedly coated in this stuff. Its hinestly not that great. I had to stop using wood cleaner on it because it was coming off on the rag.

As always, great and unbiased review. Thank you!

I’ve been super curious about Cam’s N3 finish. The man seemed to be honest about it through the whole process and I believed him but I appreciate a non biased review from someone like you. I think I’m going to give his a shot.

Really cool review, I hadn't even realized these kinds of coatings had made their way to the woodworking world. I got semi into car detailing over the pandemic and have used a couple of the ceramic products on cars for myself and couple of people and they do work very well. The only caveat I would recommend is be very wary of the claims about UV protection unless they have numbers to back it up. Many, many automotive products claim to have "UV protection" but most do not last any usable length of time. Great YT channel called Dmitri's Garage that does really great testing on all kind of auto stuff did tests on a ton of products that touted a high level of protection and he compared them against each other, and very very few provided any sort of usable protection. Short of rubbing your furniture with sunscreen, there's not a ton you can do about anything that's near a window or lives outside. Anyway great stuff as usual man, really looking forward to how these ceramics progress in terms of their woodworking application.

It honestly looks like one of the best applications may be for highly figured pieces - the contrast behind door #2 is incredible.

Thank you for the fair and honest review! All the brands you reviewed here are great products, and you can't go wrong with either one.

Cool info. I've got a big set of dressers to finish coming up (and a set of side tables to refinish the top coat after 2 years of use) and gonna go with this instead of spraying poly. I was already using shellac as a sort of sanding sealer first coat. Seems like this has some of the same ease of use (and caveats) as wipe on poly, but with less hassle and a much thinner lighter feel/sheen

In Texas, we say p’CAHN. It’s kind of a big deal here. On the other hand, PEE-can is what you use on the job site when the water is turned off.

There is a product I believe that is the exact same stuff for cell phone screens. When I applied it to an older phone I did some testing. It took a massive amount of effort to scratch the side of the screen with it applied. Once I did get it to scratch It was super shallow and reapplying the coating filled in the scratch and it was no longer visible. The stuff works... if its the same stuff then im 100% in. Id been watching his videos where he had been using this stuff and have been considering testing it.

As a professional certified detailer that was coming up during the transition from traditional waxes to ceramic/polymer-based products. As I have been getting into woodworking, I have really been thinking about how they would work in this application. Your explanation of how light bounces off of surfaces is right out of my detail training years ago. I am excited you are diving into this process.

A good WB conversion Varnish will cost about the same for equal coverage. So the ceramic coats are not unreasonable. But at the risk of sounding like a cranky old film finish guy, if your project is more than just a table top and has a lot of parts like say a mission dinning chair, I find spraying much faster and has better results. A note on feel. I don’t find a buffed out varnished table and a HWO table to be that much different. Sanding prep and using a raking light to “really make sure” makes more difference in feel than finishes in equivalent sheens.

Great video! Thanks!

Another great video. Very interesting. Thank you, from the UK.

Those samples at the beginning got me hooked fast. Good video.

As always, great review Jon. I need to begin using one of these ceramics.

Thanks for the great tutorial. Have a great Christmas

I love how no nonsense your videos are, and your knack for subtle yet great humor. You are the Tommy Lee jones of wood working RU-vidrs

Good video. Thanks!

Another informative, well put together, comprehensive video. Great job! Looks like some great products, with great results. Hopefully they will continue innovating, and bringing down the price. Great content brother…however, I do miss the comedy of the older videos!

Thanks for the solid testing! I would like to see it compared to dewaxed shellac as a top coat.

Very well presented! Definitely worthwhile

Good video and interesting topic. I’ve been interested and impressed with the effects on car paint. I’ve been skeptical about all the manufactures claims of major differences between brands. My point, id be really curious to see you experiment with basic car ceramic coatings for instance the turtle wax hybrid solutions spray, ceramic coating. I’ve personally used that product and think it’s very decent.

Was waiting for a good ceramics shootout! So torn about these products because I too have fallen in love with hard wax oils (osmo neutral in particular) for ease of application, adequate durability for most things aside from table tops, and reasonable price. Once you add the extra steps, expensive cost , and nuance of properly applying the ceramics, you are sort missing out on all the benefits that originally made me switch to hard wax oils from poly. So maybe these are nice for high traffic items ie tables, I can’t say I’m sold or see the benefit vs traditional water or oil based poly.

Great video as usual.

Jon, you are always on the lookout for product challenges which is one of the things that draws me to some of your videos. I have been using a carnauba wax / tung oil infusion that I make in my shop for going on 2 years now. The protection and sheen rival those of the ceramics as well as the UV protection. It is my go-to finish as a general. The recipe is a 5 parts tung oil to 1 part carnauba wax brought to melting point mixed and then cooled. I also use a variation of microcrystalline wax in place of the carnauba wax for lighter woods to reduce the ambering that the carnauba wax produces on blonder woods. It applies smoothly, and buffs in beautifully and in most situations is easily corrected. The reason I am saying all of this is that just maybe this could be more content to create. True hard waxes VS ceramics.🤔

Great video John keep up the great work

said it before, and I'll say it agian, so glad i stumbled on to your channel. Thank you!

Great video and information Jon. Thank you. I used the carbon method of my table saw. Can definitely tell a difference. I dont want scratchy the elephant in my house, but think he should make future cameos in your videos. 👍🏻

Excellent video as always. Too expensive for me for every day stuff but makes sense for a tabletop. Plus I still prefer the matte look over any sort of gloss.

Awesome video man! Thanks for testing our products. One feature about our product we’re very proud of is that it is water based, which eliminates any harmful solvents. I’d be curious to know if you saw a difference in VOCs! We also see that you had used one of our older formulas, we’ve improved the product and have even more durable coatings available. We’d be happy to send you some for testing!

I have friends who have used a couple of the products you tested, and was impressed but discovered a ceramic coating by Black Diamond (a popular epoxy and finish company sells their pigments) that sells for about 30 bucks for two 30ml bottles. At that price I decided to give it a try and, while I haven't done any long term tests or scientific studies, I can't tell the difference between that product and the others. There may be subtle differences, but I wouldn't call one better that the other and I'll continue to use the Black Diamond product unless I see a reason to spend multiple times that. No affiliation, just came across it when looking for a value option.

I applied the coats of the Black Tail Studios N3 Nano coating on an outdoor table, and the arm rests of an outdoor sofa and 2 chairs. It was really easy to apply. It looks and feels GREAT. This table and chairs are under a covered porch so won't get direct rain, but they will get the occasional spray when it pours. They will also get a lot of sun... I can't speak for the longevity (since it's only been a few days), but so far, they look/feel great. I would certainly use it again.

Just to note about repairing a scratch - depending on the scratch, I would do a light buff, clean, THEN USE an oil or whatever ORIGINAL FINISH before using the ceramic coat. Ingredients matter and you can not really compare ceramic coatings without knowing this.

I grew up in an era where a gloss finish was highly desirable. I can remember the old Pledge Furniture Wax commercials showing the can reflecting on a table top like it was on a mirror. Despite the current trend towards matte I still love a gloss finish. I currently apply 3 coats of gloss poly to my projects to get that deep shine effect, so these products are right up my alley.

As always very profesional and still fun video.

Appreciate the video's regarding finishes. I am preparing two walnut slabs for picnic table bench tops. Yes, many have stated walnut is not a great wood for outdoors, but "happy wife..." Therefore, I would appreciate your recommendations for how to treat the wood. Initially, I was considering an oil based finish with a paste wax top coat. My rational behind this approach, knowing it will require annual maintenance, oil/wax is easier to re-apply.

I wonder if the UV protection is enough to help species, like padauk and purpleheart, maintain their vibrant colors. I feel like that would be a big value proposition

Here’s another question to ask. I’ve varnish multimillion dollar boats. It’s a constant job like painting the Brooklyn Bridge or something. It never ends because just about no matter what you put out there the UV and the salt eat it up. I wonder if you would do a test sometimeon a boat that’s used strictly in saltwater and see how it holds up in real life not on test strips. Thanks for a great video I look forward to more.

Great Video

Thank for this. I just finished a table for a customer and they are asking for a little extra protection so I have been looking at these and will likely apply one.

Ive been using a similar ceramic coating on our john deere farm tractors 🚜 it really helps the the paint from fading in the florida sun lol. It may be the same coating, its applied the exact same way. And yes you have to watch the lap lines with it lol

thanks

Would that protect shellack from alcohol?

Been watching I think since you launched your channel. Keep the good work coming!

Excellent video with every attempt to be as fair and reasonable as possible. If you want greater protection and/or a higher sheen, then I would agree the currently available hard wax oils may not be sufficient. However, be patient for a few months because I think we will see developments on this. I think, as you and others have said, that a more considered opinion about the cost/value of ceramic coatings on wood will have to wait until we see how they last under real conditions. I do know, from a major used car retailer, that their biggest profits don’t come from selling the car but selling ceramic coating protection - I would suggest that this is the snake oil sale effect. In terms of hard wax oils, i have been using Natural Onecoat having seen it recommended by the Wood Whisperer. It is a 2 pack product that offers, to me, great advantages in terms of very fast cure - meaning I can move pieces around my workshop within an hour without ruining the finish and I don’t have to worry about dust contamination on top of curing finish. Looking at ease of use and sheen levels, I dont see a material difference between Natura and Osmo or Rubio. I can’t say how the Natura products will stand up to use after a year or more as I haven’t been using it long enough but I see no reason to believe that I will find any difference in that area also. Where there is a major difference is cost. hard wax oils are expensive. They have been, in my view, very, almost unsustainably, expensive compared to other finishes. Even with all their advantages as a finish, cost has been an issue for me (having spent thousands of Rubio over the last couple of years whilst finishing oak in a barn conversion). However, along comes Natura and is significantly, very significantly, cheaper. If I had known about and bought Natura 2 years ago, I reckon they would be a thousand more in my pocket and a thousand less in the private investment company that owns Rubio (apologies but that’s a personal view about the role of private equity companies). With hard wax oil now available much cheaper, plus agreeing that greater use and competition of ceramic coatings will reduce those prices, then I see the options and costs for furniture makers and wooden floor contractors getting better and better. By the way, I have no commercial connection to any business - living on a pension, I would love sponsorship but would hate the compromises that it would bring.

Thank you for bringing this up and doing the test. I'm glad that you also tested on finished like BLO which of course is not durable in any way. I was wandering if putting the nano coat on the BLO have the same protection and look as putting the nano coating on Rubio monocoat? Thoughts?

I like your honesty, seems a bit rare on RU-vid

A very good way to determine whether a woodworking related product is good is to look at if commercial users use it. If the answer is "no", then it is very possible that you may have to question the usefulness of a product.

Bought the blk studio nano, used over rubio. Beautiful. I don’t think it protects any better. Used on dining room table, cardboard box scratched finish and cats scratched finish. I used the table normally to see if its worth $100. I will use it again likely but over sold.

This is very interesting - I might put it on some outdoor table tops. I live in a 4-season state. Brutal high desert sun and cold icey/snowy winters. I wonder if I get better protection? 🤔

Great video! How long do these products store? As a hobby woodworker, I only finish about 1 project every 2 months or so. Even if I put this on every project I make, it’d probably take me 2-3 years to use up a bottle. Do any of the products have a long shelf life once opened and does that change by product?

I really like this type of video since it gives us budding home hobbyists some critical information that will save us a lot of time and money. One critical piece of information that you didn't mention is what is the shelf-life of these products once they are opened. Since my woodworking is a evening and weekend affair that has to fit around all of the other must do tasks, and as such projects can take a long time to finish with gaps between projects it might be several months between use of these products. An extra $20 per table top equivalent area is not a price barrier for me for the extra level of protection these give. But if these products go bad between using them on say the mid-century modern coffee table I plan to make first to gain experience on a smaller project and being able to finish building the same basic design scaled up for a dining room table, then $130 to coat just the coffee table is a problem.

Question: If we're going to rely on the ceramic topcoat for sheen and durability, why use an expensive hard wax oil instead of an inexpensive finish like BLO (with the understanding that the terms expensive and inexpensive relative). BLO is very easy to apply, readily available, 'pops the grain', and is about as inexpensive as a finish can be nowadays. A hard wax oil finish might cure more quickly than BLO, but given the multi-day process required for the ceramic finishes, it doesn't seem that the additional time BLO might require is an issue.

I’ve always heard that pecan the way you pronounce it is the bucket you keep underneath your bed for when you don’t feel like walking all the way to bathroom in the middle of the night

Great video! I do worry however when coatings on wood seal them. I mean if you get water under polyurethane it starts to Bublé.

Really appreciate you sticking to the subject without all the comedy fluff BS

Great video, the product does sound well worth it. IMHO. I need a new top on my kitchen table, do you have a video on that? Thanks

Thank you. I have not tried any of these because they are so expensive.

Would be very interested to see how these ceramic finishes impact the ability to do finish touch ups/repairs on finished furniture without needing to sand back to bare wood. Thats the biggest benefit of the hardwax oils for me. To refresh, all you need to do is clean the surface and wipe a fresh coat on. If i need to sand back to bare wood to refinish, im going back to the world of film finishes and skipping the ceramics. Great video, thank you for that.

Would like to hear your thoughts on using ceramic coatings on top of Waterlox for a wooden sink countertop.

I just used the N3 on a walnut table I have at my vacation home. We rent the home out, and the table gets abused and was really looking worn. I sanded down to bare wood and went with a LED cured hard wax oil. I then went 5 coats of ceramic (2 hard and 3 top) and the table looks stunning. The last finish (hand rubbed poly) lasted 5 years. I’ll be sure to report back if this one lasts longer, but regardless I can tell you that I prefer the look of hard wax/ceramic to hand rubbed poly and it’s not even close. Way more depth of grain.

Very well explained. Thank you. When are you and your neighbor gonna have another competition?? Can't wait

How do you think the ceramic coatings would do on a small deck with a lot of sun/UV exposure?

Nice video. I definitely agree hard wax oils look better with another topcoat and functionally need it. Can’t imagine a kitchen table with just Rubio. That said I guess I’m not sure what these ceramics offer that would make them better than a wipe on top urethane top coat like GF arm-r-seal. Get it in semi gloss and you have a more vibrant sheen.

The mullet joke made me chuckle. Touche, sir.

Great video, thanks for all the clear, concise, video!

Another good video, Jon. I really didn't know much on the topic of ceramics and finishing is definitely my weak spot as a woodworker. Strangely the thing that really struck me is that people are not sanding past 180. Is that true? I never even consider sanding less than 220 and go up to 400 on my finer projects. Maybe I need to reevaluate the labor I'm putting in.

If you put it over a lacquer do you get rings when you place a sweaty glass on it?

this from an old 40 year lacquer guy lol with lacquered finishes protecting table tops from direct sunlight is important we made high end tables back in the day and we had to include with our care guide instructions to not sit the table in front of patio doors or large windows in direct sunlight with dollies and or vases of flowers etc... on them as they would get bleached by the sunlight we had one summer after we started selling lots of the tables that we had half a dozen come back for refinishing because of bleaching still to this day i would not recommend that any wood table be left in direct sunlight no matter what the finish, if its going to be in the light either cover it completely with a table cloth or leave the top completely uncovered with nothing on the the tabletop indirect sunlight is ok but avoid direct sunlight at all costs PS never was a fan of the satin finishes i like a 35/45% sheen myself

Still love the content man! Great video!

This may sound silly, but I'd love to see a comparison between these ceramics and something dirt cheap like rainX. It's not intended for woodworking, but it is a hydrophobic coating designed for windshields, which take quite a bit more abuse than a dining table would. I might have to give it a try at some point and see if it works and how it looks.

Great unbiased reviews. Question- what Raking light are you using? Thank you... J

Nice overview, had been wondering if Cerakote might be useful in some conditions.

Awesome. Been reading a lot on finishes and still wrapping my head around what to use for what applications. Does the following sound like a good solution for wooden floors? • 2-3 coats walnut oil • 4-5 coats Waterlox (e.g. 3 high-gloss, 2 satin)

Well I am impressed. I thought only North Carolinians and Texan knew how to pronounce PECAN. Tell me can you South Carolinians actually make a decent PECAN pie? Now how do you pronounce Pralines? I am PRAYing for you. Good Video. I will be buying some stuff from Cam. Cordially W. David McGuinn.

Id like to see the uv protection difference between these and spar urethane

How easy do they apply on more complicated pieces with corners and details?

I’m always excited to see a new video as this is one of my favorite woodworking channels. I’d just like to say, since it wasn’t mentioned in the video, It’s worth noting that hydrophobic chemicals like this don’t ever break down. They are essentially forever chemicals. Their eerie ability to repel water is actually what makes them horrible. That’s not a great thing for the environment or the animals that inhabit it, including sapiens. I stopped using them on my car for that reason and won’t be covering my furniture in them either. Yes they look nice but I think the sheen of hard wax oils looks good too. And nobody is going to look at a beautiful piece you made and then think it’s not shiny enough. Only when you put samples side by side do we tease out arbitrary preferences like that. I don’t necessarily think this means we’re lying to ourselves about liking satin finishes, but I do get your point. It’s not really the sheen but what it does to the color that looks nice.

OSMO for the Win

What else can be used on top of a product like Rubio to increase sheen?

Would the added UV protection slow or prevent the colours of certain woods, like padauk or purpleheart from turning ugly brown?