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I'm finishing a live edge Cherry bar top. Customer (friend) picked Armor Seal Satin from samples. I've now put 3 coats full strength down, scuff sanding between coats and removing all dust. After 3rd coat dried, the piece looks perfect, until using a severe raking light, then I can see considerable brush marks. I'm using a good natural bristle brush with extremely light tip off.. Everything looks great wet, but the problem shows up when overnight dry.
I suspect it simply not leveling, but what to do about that??
*a thinned final coat
*a thinned final coat of gloss (could the flatteners be the issue?)
*a different application method
Something else.....
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(05-10-2019, 06:43 PM)Demps Wrote: I'm finishing a live edge Cherry bar top. Customer (friend) picked Armor Seal Satin from samples. I've now put 3 coats full strength down, scuff sanding between coats and removing all dust. After 3rd coat dried, the piece looks perfect, until using a severe raking light, then I can see considerable brush marks. I'm using a good natural bristle brush with extremely light tip off.. Everything looks great wet, but the problem shows up when overnight dry.
I suspect it simply not leveling, but what to do about that??
*a thinned final coat
*a thinned final coat of gloss (could the flatteners be the issue?)
*a different application method
Something else.....
Demps, if you are seeing actual brush marks you should be able to feel the change in thickness with your fingers. If so, then I would sand it dead flat with 325 grit sandpaper and then apply two or three additional coats. If you have some gloss I would use it for one or two coats and I would thin them around 25% with mineral spirits. Thinning it will increase the open time so you shouldn't get any brush mark streaks. If that looks good you could let that cure a week or so and then rub it out to satin, or you could switch to satin ARS and apply one more coat, thinning like before, and/or using a paper towel. Rubbing out cured gloss is guaranteed to work but takes more time. If you'd rather go with a satin last coat practice on some scrap until you are confident you can apply it uniformly. It ain't easy on large surfaces; to be completely honest, I've never been able to do it on anything larger than about 2' x 5'.
Hope this helps some.
John
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(05-10-2019, 08:38 PM)jteneyck Wrote: Demps, if you are seeing actual brush marks you should be able to feel the change in thickness with your fingers. If so, then I would sand it dead flat with 325 grit sandpaper and then apply two or three additional coats. If you have some gloss I would use it for one or two coats and I would thin them around 25% with mineral spirits. Thinning it will increase the open time so you shouldn't get any brush mark streaks. If that looks good you could let that cure a week or so and then rub it out to satin, or you could switch to satin ARS and apply one more coat, thinning like before, and/or using a paper towel. Rubbing out cured gloss is guaranteed to work but takes more time. If you'd rather go with a satin last coat practice on some scrap until you are confident you can apply it uniformly. It ain't easy on large surfaces; to be completely honest, I've never been able to do it on anything larger than about 2' x 5'.
Hope this helps some.
John
John, thanks for the quick response. I was hoping you would jump in.
I can see what appears to be brush marks with severe raking light (20 deg off horizontal), but can't feel or fingernail anything. It super smooth. Reviewing GF site, I now suspect they are friction streaks (their terms). I very lightly sanded with P600 and they are now gone. I plan a 25% diluted coat of gloss later today and will post results.
Thanks again..
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(05-11-2019, 10:21 AM)Demps Wrote: John, thanks for the quick response. I was hoping you would jump in.
I can see what appears to be brush marks with severe raking light (20 deg off horizontal), but can't feel or fingernail anything. It super smooth. Reviewing GF site, I now suspect they are friction streaks (their terms). I very lightly sanded with P600 and they are now gone. I plan a 25% diluted coat of gloss later today and will post results.
Thanks again..
Hi Demps - first of all, John has forgotten more about this topic than I will ever know, but here is what I have learned from using GF Armor Seal. I don't use a brush anymore, no matter how high quality it is. I have had much better luck applying it with an old clean T-shirt. In terms of applying it, I believe you have to find a balance between applying too much Armor Seal, but enough to not have a streaking effect. After reading your second post regarding friction streaks, I think that may be what you are experiencing. After the final coat and very lightly wet sanding with 600, I finished with steel wool - the nice soft 0000 steel wool from Briwax, and some furniture paste wax. FWIW. Good luck - I am sure it will turn out the way you want it.