[bridkarl]

I'm getting ready to put some walnut stain on this.
Would it be a good idea to put some clear gloss over that just for durability? I have some spray gloss. 
       

[RodB]

By all means. After the stain dries it will probably be dark and have a flat finish. If your clear gloss is lacquer, then I would spray several light coats allowing 30-60 minutes between coats. If the clear gloss is urethane I wouldn't use it. Urethane is essentially plastic. To me, it looks unnatural. Lacquer will enhance the grain.

Some people put on a sealer coat before the finish and some stains have sealer in them.

[bridkarl]

I have no lacquer on hand, but I can certainly do that later. This is for that 1937 Pacific 15 I'm finishing. Not a Philco but the grey housepaint someone threw on this had to go. Anything was better. I used some dark walnut after an afternoon of stripping two coats of paint with Citri-Strip. 

All I have is some high gloss in a spray can which is as you say plastic.
Give it two hours to dry and I'll post a pic. It seems fine so far. clear and 75 degrees so perfect conditions to do this in the yard.

[bridkarl]

It came out OK. Flat but some laquer should do the job on this    

[Joe Rossi]

Sweet!

[bridkarl]

Here's the before    

[klondike98]

Clear gloss spray lacquer is the ticket. I use Deft but there are others. light coats, dry and sand lightly. Usually I do 3 or 4 coats but it depends on how its looking. After the final coat I'll rub it out with 2F pumice or rottenstone to knock the gloss back just a bit. After that, a furniture paste wax will finish it off.

[bridkarl]

OK. I'll try that. Just a single coat of this dark walnut stain worked fine. Thanks.

Did you use something like 400 grit between lacquer coats or go with something like a 600?

[klondike98]

I just used 220 and only very lightly.

[bridkarl]

It came out ok. Still need to put some wax on it.
Not perfect but certainly an improvement over grey paint.