Anyone good at finishing wood?

Backstory: I help to manage a bunch of rental properties. Many of them have 1950's solid wood cabinets. The owners don't want to replace them if possible because "they are solid wood and sturdy,...why replace them with particleboard crap".  UGH.  OK, so that leaves 2 options, paint or refinish. Yes, we have had some refaced, and that's ideal, but it's still an expense and not always viable. 

I hate painting because nothing seems to stick. Despite all my sanding, degreasing, and prep work, the paint chips up quickly. Slide the bottom of a porcelain bowl across the paint and see what I mean. UGH! So, question 1: Is there a magic paint that actually sticks that I am unaware of? 

Refinishing seems like the easy button, the varnish has worn off in some spots, so sand it, stain it, seal it, and Bob's your Uncle. Sadly, this does not work either. The spots where the varnish wore off have absorbed years of oil and water and will stain black no matter how much you sand off. The areas where varnish remains need sanded to raw wood, and then will only stain very lightly. The end result is a mottled mess. UGH!  So question #2, is there a stain that acts like a paint or something? 

At the end of the day, I generally get them to a point where the owners are happy, its "good enough for a rental", but its a lot of work for me and I am rarely happy with the results. 

Not too many responses.

You might try sanding (plus even a quick wipe with acetone) then one or two coats of a shelac based white primer. Then paint. It should be an oil based glossy paint.

Ron

Refacing might be an option. Typically, new doors, and old cabinet boxes that one veneers. I imagine there's lots of info online. I actually have a lot of experience but it's a little dated now. New hinges and better drawer guides and or drawer boxes can be done at the same time. Most cost effective is probably a product called RTF. Rigid thermal foil. Doesn't have to look crappy and there are some amazing foils out there. Pretty durable too. I used to drag a coin over the surface of a door to demonstrate this. i'd be happy to talk with you about it. I still have a whole bunch of sample doors. ,

A porcelain bowl bottom can be like a file on any surface.  But why are you sliding it on a cabinet?  If the finish problem is on the shelves, put on shelf paper and make the issue a tenant responsibility.  I have found oil based polyurethane to be an extremely durable finish for desks and tables.  I put it on heavy, multiple coats.  Make sure to sand and do a serious cleaning of the surface between coats.  A chemical then tack cloth works.  I wet sand after the final coat and get a surface that is smooth as glass and tough.  

Kitchen cabinets can be tough (particularly in a rental property) because of the decades of grease and grime.  One tip is no matter what you do, clean them first before doing any sanding, as that will just rub the grease and grime further into the wood.  You may have better luck scraping the doors over sanding to get them ready.  Personally I'm not a fan of painting over a natural wood finish.

Sand with 180 grit, prime with a coat of stain blocking primer like ZInsler BIN (stuff is not cheap and honestly not that much fun to work with but it works), top coat with something like Sherwin Williams Emerald Door & Trim paint.  Might be smart to call a real painter that has dealt with this products in the past as both the BIN primer and Emerald trim paint are not the most forgiving to lay down and it will probably go faster with a professional laying the paint down.

I've seen some people use gel stains and letting that sit for longer than normal stain. The results seem to be pretty consistent. Before covering it in the stain though I would do a test patch somewhere that has a problem area you mentioned. 

Look into wipe-on polyurethane or make your own with 60% poly and 40% mineral spirits.

Wipe on with a rag until the wood won't soak up anymore, let dry. It will dry without brush marks and won't leave a really thick surface finish.

This will only work on bare wood so you'll have to strip and sand the old finish.

You should only have to reapply between tenants.

If you want paint, pick a good oil-based finish. The latex garbage you buy now doesn't last worth a damn. I painted a shed that lived outdoors with Rustoleum and it never needed re-painting in the 11 years I lived in that house. Latex is NOT as good as oil, no matter what the paint companies tell you. 

Thanks folks. Right now I have a decent finish on the doors and the frames, but the frames are lighter than the doors. The drawers look like E36 M3e, and the end panels look good, but are a third shade. UGH. SO...I am going to put it all back together with new hardware and deal with whatever looks the worst. I think a light sand of the drawer fronts and then some darker stain to get them to match the doors and I will call it a day. Shelf paper is for sure on this one! 

I painted my kitchen cabinets. I went to Sherwin Williams and purchased paint and primer specifically made for cabinets. It worked very well. Prep is, as always, important. 

I Vote for refacing. Then you have a product that looks like new while retaining the old carcasses and saving a lot of cost. 

My current go to for painting new and existing cabinets has been the BIN Shellac based primer and Emcore/Target Coating WB pigmented lacquer. The Bin primer blocks stains, dries fast and sands out super flat, and the pigmented lacquer (can be tinted to match most paint codes) lays down smooth (using a Fuji HVLP gun/blower setup), and cures hard. They offer a crosslinker for the finish that makes it even less susceptible to abuse. 

I used to have access to a few other brands for the pigmented lacquer but they are hard to come by locally and Target Coatings can be shipped quickly for my needs.

For restaining and clear finish I have had good luck degreasing before sand paper ever touches the cabinets, using a thinned wood sealer (shellac and denatured alcohol, 1:2 ratio or thinner) to keep stain from looking blotchy, a light sand after sealer, quick wipe of stain and then clear WB lacquer/varnish from either Emcore or General Finishes.  

This may not be applicable, but I've redone some wood furniture.  A Moors chair, Stickley calls them Mission Oak, the arm rests get black and gummy from skin oil etc. at the ends of the arm rest.  I use a 50/50 mix of Mineral Spirits and Linseed Oil and using a #0000 steel wool, the spirits cleans everything and Linseed puts moisture back in the wood.  Could work for the dark rings around the knobs.  Won't apply if the cabinets are sealed in clear.

We have two of these that are quite old but still look pretty good.

I had trouble where I stained some molding I installed around a door that we stained.  Where I had sanded filler over nail holes didn't take the stain worth a damn.   I believe I read that sanding can close up the pores in wood by filling with crap.  I think they said wipe the wood down with water to clean and reopen the pores.  

Alcohol cleans the pores and brings up the grain.  Do it you would a tack cloth when painting a car.

You had crud in the wood.  Water will not do it.  Some paint thinner on a rag and then tack cloth.  Wasted a lot of poly, sandpaper and time learning this.  

If you're painting, start with Glidden Gripper.  I swear that stuff would stick to a teflon skillet.  They used to have displays at HD where they painted a bunch of test surfaces including wood, glossy tile, glass, and plastic with both Gripper and Kilz and invited you to try and pick the paint off.  The Gripper refused to come off even glass.

Unless it has already been refinished, they likely have shellac on them.  It's easy to strip with acetone or some denatured alcohol.  Spray on, wait until it looks like your fingers when you stay in the water too long, scrape off.  Sand and refinish.  Make your own wipe-on poly with equal parts of poly, tung oil, and thinner. Do about 5 coats.  Another pretty bulletproof option is using Oil Modified Urethane (OMU).  It splits the line between water based poly and oil based.  Oil based poly is pretty hard to get a nice finish without bubbles or brush streaks because it's thick.  Water based never really gives you the depth of grain.  OMU uses oil poly esters emulsified in a water base.  I did my maple floors with it and it has zero visible wear after 7 years.

Oily finger stains are tough, especially if the cabinets are a softer wood.  I did some chestnut of my own (a desktop that had stains from where my arms rested on the edge) and I had to plane off about 5 passes before I got rid of it.  Oak, teak, or mahogany would have probably only needed some sanding.

Have any pictures?