I am working on a project made of African mahogany. It’s a wall mount for our guitars that will stay indoors. I have a water based polyurethane stain. I’m going for a darker stain. I’ve put a layer on my test piece and it’s a nice color and spreads on well but it has no shine. From what I understand, more layers with high grit sanding will get some shine, but I should also add a layer of wax, oil, or varnish. I’m having a lot of trouble deciding what to get for the final layer! Advice would be appreciated.
Minwax polycrilic comes in several sheens. Have you tried the gloss variation? It should reflect the most amount of light.