faced with a plethora of options for finishing, ultimately the choice was between lacquer and shellac. i was inclined to spray lacquer, but did not want to use a water based product and nitrocellulose lacquer is too flamable to spray in the basement close to the pilot light in the furnace, so i ended up pursuing a rubbed shellac finish - not really a traditional french polish given the expoxy pore fill and that i will do a light sanding between some polishing cycles. i ended up taking from a variety of documented processes. like bending, finishing well will take some time to refine.