I'm still finishing an A&C style desk. I have several coats of gloss varnish on it, smoothed it out and then wiped on a coat of semi-gloss. Was looking good, then decided to apply one more wipe on coat to the top. I picked up the container with my semi-gloss wiping varnish and lathered on one more coat. Problem was I didn't think it being semi gloss, so I didn't stir it up. I also used all that was in the container. So what happened was that the flatters were all in the last few swipes I made, and once the varnish started drying I saw what I did. There are globs of white material at each end of the top, where the concentrated flatters piled up. You couldn't see this when the varnish was still wet, it had to be dried somewhat (apparently) for the globs to be visible. Uuuugh, now I have some cleaning up to do, and then recoat. Moral of the story...don't go asleep (mentally) when in the shop; or anywhere else besides the couch for that matter.

Dang!!

I don't know about varnish but flattening agent in lacquer is silicon sand. Yes you can screw up lacquer the same way.. Another thing I learned is if you want to end up with a flat or satin look no matter how many coats only the last coat is the flat or satin finish where all the rest will be gloss. I end up with a deeper looking clear finish this way.....

 

Should clean up with some sanding with P400 sandpaper and Scotch-Brite pads and a lot of work.   Sorry about your bad luck, but bet you won't forget to do this again.

 

Probably would not work in this case but I have learned that semi gloss lacquer can be buffed to near high gloss.

It's looking like we'll be snowed in the next day or so, so i should have plenty f time to work on it....if the varnish is dry enough to clean up. I waited 4 days for it to cure so I could wet sand it and put on the final coats.

Well, after some work with some sandpaper and Scorch Brite pads, I managed to get things cleaned up. The magnitude of my screw up was worse than I though. I had not only piled the flatters into globs, but because I didn't stir the varnish, the first few swipes dried to a nice gloss. So after I got things worked out the entire top got one more (I hope final) coat of semi gloss.

At least you had the know how to fix it.  Hopefully you are done now.  Get us a picture.

 Good to hear you saved it.

Glad you were able to save it. Lots of extra work.

An update, my "save" wasn't as good as I thought. the weather (and life in general) kept me from going back out to the shop to see what happened. But after that last coat dried I still had unmixed flatters marring the surface. At this point I need the varnish to cure enough to remove the last coat. I'm hoping that will be tomorrow but when using oil finishes it pays to be patient. In any case, after I get this fixed (if I ever do) I'll post a pic. I hardly ever use semi gloss (not an excuse), preferring to use gloss and then knock the sheen down with rubbing compound. Probably not possible in this case, but that's the way it will be in the future.

 Hang in there Fred, with your skills I'm sure you'll save it.

Is this the varnish you fellers were talking about was hard to get?

Yeah, it's Cabot 8000...no longer on the market.

Tired of doing updates, really wished I hadn't screwed this up. But I able to get the surface cleaned up this morning. It's not perfect, I removed some of the stain (visible spot next to the cable hole, and other less visible) but I think I've got it as good as it will be. Man, the lessons of this episode will stay with me a long time ( I hope). The pic actually looks better than it does, but since this is my personal basement desk it's what I got.

On 11/15/2019 at 3:40 AM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

The weather (and life in general)

That's the reason my computer in a desk build stalled. I just haven't been able to get cooperating weather. 

years ago i used Red Devil polyurethane. i sprayed everything with it. Walmart sold  for around $22 a gal...Discontinued and i moved on. I moved on to S&W poly and pre-cats...I'll never go back...

 

Point I'm making is it may be time to find a more easily found finish..I've considered conversion varnish but haven't made the move yet

That's obviously what I'll have to do once my stash is used up. For now I've got enough to keep me going. But I'm predicting that in the not-too-distant future we will all be forces to switch to waterborne finishes. That may not be a bad thing, but it will acquire some adjusting ...at least on my part.

Do you do any spraying?

I do, I spray shellac and waterborne finishes. I've also sprayed lacquer but only when I can do so outside. I've given up spraying oil based finishes, the overspray is too hard to deal with in a hobbyist shop. I've never sprayed varnish, the only oil based I've sprayed was paint.