Minwax, the brand/manufacturer, has disappointed me too many times for me to continue being their customer.

The only product of theirs I have a generally favorable view of is their "Tung Oil Finish," which as far as I can tell contains little to no tung oil but is instead an oil-based wiping varnish and/or urethane. I've been happy with all but one project I've finished with this "I can't believe it's not tung oil," the one I'm not really happy with is the replacement keyboard tray I made for my desk. I attempted to stain this with Minwax yellow-can stain before applying the finish, and the finish took a lot of the stain back off so I got a blotchy "found in a pond" look out of it. Applied over bare wood it comes out to a nice satin finish with a very nice feel.

Their paste wax is paste wax. It does the job. I don't use paste wax as a wood finish, I use it as a lubricant/protective coating for my tools. And it's not hard to melt some paraffin into some mineral oil, not even Minwax could fuck that up.

I've never been happy with their traditional stains, which don't seem to fully dry and even with their pre-stain conditioner just come out blotchy and hideous to the point I'm thinking of categorically giving up staining wood entirely.

They're normal everyday black can oil-based poly also doesn't seem to fully dry; it remains just slightly tacky such that if you finished a tabletop, then left a penny on the table, you'd have to pry the penny up after a day or two.

Their "stainable wood filler" is the damnedest substance; it's brown liquid grit that wants to go everywhere except into a nail hole, and it leaves a catastrophic shit stain wherever it touches. The instructions should read "Dude just don't put nails anywhere they're gonna show on a piece you intend to stain because this product doesn't work."

Their stain-in-urethane product called "Polyshades" is a sewage tier product. It is somehow sticky enough to where applying an even coat is impossible, but thin enough that runs and sags are guaranteed. Plus it seems to fuck up the grain; carefully sanded wood becomes rough as 80 grit after a coat of Polyshades. Polyshades is liquid project ruiner. It's continued manufacture is inexcusable.

So.

Minwax as a company and as a product line are no longer welcome in my wood shop. I have spoken.

As for replacing them/exactly what products I'm looking for, as I said: stains and wiping varnishes.

I'm not really interested in lacquers because most lacquers are designed to be sprayed on (most sold on the consumer market come in rattle cans) and a spray booth is just out of the question for my little shop.

I have had pretty good luck with that "I can't believe it's not tung oil." A low viscosity varnish that I can put on in actually very thin coats and wipe off any excess works for me, I guess I'm a wiping varnish kind of guy.

I'm willing to give the concept of wood stain one more try, but I haven't been able to feel hope since I was a teenager so I anticipate abandoning pigment as a concept because I strongly doubt there's anyone who makes a stain that's worth a damn.