This question is a follow-up/continuation to another SO question of mine with added detail and hopefully a better explanation of my approach and current state of the board. The state of the wood slab has evolved even since posting that question and rather than amend that SO question into oblivion I figured best to ask a separate one...

As reminder, I used spar varnish and watco danish oil.

It's my first real attempt at wood finishing and made the following mistakes:

After sanding down the table I have applied the following coats with their respective dry times and mixtures:

Current state of the last coat is best described as "tacky/gummy" with strong smell (both reducing as time wears on...). I'm not sure it's still soft enough to leave finger prints but feels sticky. Not sure how hard to expect it to feel or how odor free to expect it to become either. From what I've read at these links a gummy feeling after about 48 hrs after not wiping away excess DO is expected. Though it's unclear if this will ever harden well enough to buff/polish (crux of this question...):

My end goal is a high gloss/polished/hard/durable finish.

From the SO question above and it's thoughtful answer as well as considering my mistakes, it seems I have a few courses of action:

Is there another course of action that I've missed? If no, which of the above would be best to pursue?

Ideally, I'd like a combination with the best balance of:

This is a learning experience and ultimately want to know how to get the best outcome out of this piece and how best to avoid these mistakes (considering my desired outcome finish) for future pieces.

Pictures here of the current state of the slab top/bottom. Note the live edge. Note also that the thickness of coats 2 and 3 combined is apparent when looking at the underside photo (4th below) (not sure if that helps anyone when answering this question). I applied only coat 1 to the underside, however I applied both coats 2 and 3 to the topside AND to the live edges (even though they face down). I'm happy to upload more/different photos if that would help in answering this question! finishing refinishing varnish oiling
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edited Apr 9 at 21:53
asked Apr 9 at 21:32 Darth Hexamal
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1 Answer 1

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up vote 1 down vote accepted

Here's what I did (pictures below):

couple minutes after application of stripper >= 15 minutes after application of stripper after removal of stripper applications after sanding slab past any spots where either varnish coat was not removed completely after application of Watch Danish Oil after final application of wipe on poly share|improve this answer
edited Aug 8 at 15:48
answered Aug 8 at 5:07 add a comment |

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