Zebrano finishing (polyurethane vs urethane)?

[Shern]

I’ve posted before that I refinished my trim wood using a more natural finish -a hard wax oil. The look is amazing, but after a couple of summers, I’m noticing the shifter console is taking a beating.

Following some light reading, I took everything off the car and applied many many coats of rattle can spar urethane. It darkened the wood considerably… not a big fan. It’s also not as hard of a finish as I was hoping for. After three days I can scrape it off with a finger nail. Thinking I may strip it all and begin again.

People have been doing this for about 20 years now -has any consensus been reached on what the appropriate finish is?

Urethane oil vs water based, poly urethane oil vs water based, epoxy, shellac, etc etc