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Rubbing out poly - I'm stuck with streaks


Bob Hodge

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I do bowls, not furniture.  I'm stuck here with my adventure in furniture.

 

Walnut table with cherry insert. Shellac over the cherry before dark walnut danish oil on the rest. 

Oil dried two weeks before 5 coats of poly, lessening amounts of cutting with mineral spirits.

Semi-gloss Poly dried four weeks before today.  Minimal bumps and nibs. I was so proud, yet

I knew it needed to be rubbed out. 

 

First photo is table top after poly, dried for four weeks. 

 

So, I started rubbing it out with 2000 grit with soapy water to see what would happen before I started with a smaller grit.

  It didn't do much, thought it was smoother.

I backed up to 1000.   I get these streaks of very dull and still somewhat shiny though I did it in circular

motions.  It is all much smoother, but with streaks.  This is shown in the second photo. 

I don't know what the streaks mean.  Likely in how I laid down the poly?  

 

Where do I go from here? 

 

On the good side, I am celebrating that my table top is flat.

 

IMG_3456.jpg.87e5c54103916d0bcf8229dee462f53a.jpgimage.png.b15b44ede561d940cfa682c3318c949c.png

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What did you use for a sanding block? I'm only guessing, but that might be an unevenness with the brush applied varnish. If you had a very flat block, it would work off the hiigher points (the duller part) and leave the shallower part (what is shiny). If I'm correct, you'll need to work the finish down some more until it all has the dull look. Wait for some more opinions, that's just my guess.

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I'M with Fred. the streaks are brush marks where the finish did not level out. In this case as Fred said sand  with a lubricant. Wipe off and check for shiny spots. When all the shine is gone then you can buff it out again. Top looks great other than all this work to correct. Next time you might want to continue thinned application for several more applications so it will level.

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I'm going to agree that it's brush marks.

 

Poly does not rub out as well as other finishes such as lacquer or shellac.  One problem is that is more resistant to abrasion, the second problem is that it is in layers and does not dissolve lower layers to make multiple applications just one layer.

 

I am also not sure why you did the Danish oil prior  to varnish (poly).  It is typically a mix of an oil (generally boiled linseed oil) and a varnish, highly thinned.  While the oil would  soak into the un-shellacked areas, it can just sit on top of the cherry.  

 

One possible repair might be to do a wipe-on poly, that you can do with thinning regular poly about 50-50 with mineral spirits.  Just a thin coat or two.

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Thanks for this.  Thinking about it this weekend, I come to the conclusion also that it must be brush strokes.  

I am embarrassed to admit that I used a poor foam brush on coat 4 that was also less thinned, thinking surely it would self level.

So, better brush and thinned more.

 

As to the danish oil before the poly, I wanted to make the walnut darker with dark walnut danish oil. I did not wipe 

it on the cherry. I put shellac on the cherry first so any danish oil would not automatically get into the cherry.

So, the cherry just has poly over shellac, but still the streaks. 

So, at least I got that right. 

 

Thanks so much for thinking this through with me. It all makes sense now.   

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