With winter just around the corner (hopefully) I am going to varnish my wood snowshoes. Anyone have a preferred type/brand of varnish or poly?

I think I used a Minwax - not sure exactly what it was, but could check.

I regularly refinish my canoe paddles and snow shoes, no particular brand I would suggest, the last has been Minwax indoor/outdoor Helmsman spar urethane for the simple reason it was on sale at Menards, either they are improving this stuff all the time or maybe I am getting better at doing it because it seems to last much better nowadays

look for something that claims protection from water/moisture, UV, and temperature changes

the main thing is that you do it

also clean away the old cracked stuff by sanding or whatever the best you can

Yeah, looks like the recommendation is anything marked as "marine spar varnish" - made for a combination of water resistance, UV inhibitors, and flexibility to avoid cracking.

quote ZaraSp00k: "I regularly refinish my canoe paddles and snow shoes, no particular brand I would suggest, the last has been Minwax indoor/outdoor Helmsman spar urethane for the simple reason it was on sale at Menards"

I have used the Helsman spar urethane for canoe paddles and have been pretty happy with it. I have always been confused about the difference between spar varnish and spar urethane. Is one preferred over the other for snowshoes?

Urethane is a varnish, but varnish may not be urethane. Confused?

Varnish is a generic name, for a mixture of oil, resin, and solvent. Urethane indicates the actual resin used. If the word varnish is used, you don’t know what the resin is without looking at the contents list.

I have found urethane to be tough but flexible, inexpensive, and actually it is better than the original varnish they put on most canoe paddles and snow shoes, and even much of the furniture regardless of price.

They say not to thin it, but I have found on bare wood especially, it soaks in much better, and on subsequent coats it makes for thinner coats which is good for longetivity. However, I thin second and later coats much less than the first.

Good old minwax as previous posters have suggested. I suppose if you wanted to, you could use any marine spar varnish. There are other more expensive brands out there. For what it's worth, I build a cedar canvas canoe a couple winters ago, and used Minwax Spar Varnish from one of the big box stores. It works fine in my opinion. I was a little worried at first after putting so much work into the boat, but after visiting a prominent builder and seeing a can of Minwax in his shop, my hesitation was eased. Should be fine for snowshoes

Thanks for the input everyone.

The table in my kitchen is finished in urethane, around 1984 or so, eating, kids doing homework, used as a tool bench to disassemble motorcycle engines, it has held up remarkable

my dining room table also has a urethane finish that I did in about 1993, I'd put the finish up against any dining room table you can find in any store at any price

I happened to be in Menards and they have Minwax on sale, and even better I found out a friend has a sand blaster, so we put it to work cleaning off the old stuff, at least the stuff that was kinda flaking off on the webbing, it worked fairly well, just don't go too crazy or you will damage it.

might want to get a canoe paddle or two while you are at it