Wipe-on poly nightmare

[barber76]

Sigh... Everything was going perfectly well with danish oil... Till after 6 layers I decided, as a finish touch, to put on couple layers of Arm-r-Seal, to add hardness and sheen.
The problem is trivial. No matter how hard I try, there's always some vey visible imperfection left after poly dries out. A swipe mark, a bubble, something.
Surely, I steel wool it with #000, and put on another layer... And it repeats - never looks good.
I'm now at 4th poly coat, and it looks just as bad...

I'm so desperate, that have a weirdest idea, after next steel wooling to put on top danish oil again. Weirdest - because I never heard of oil being on top of poly, it is always the opposite.

 

[Rick]

I don't know how bad it is, but for swirl marks I'm a fan of Meguire's Scratch X (or whatever they call swirl remover these days.)  They have diffrent levels of swirl remover, and none of them will hurt your finish.

 

[barber76]

I'll try to post pics later today. Will need angled lighting to show it well.

After the last coat, when it was immediately clear that it didn't go well - I grabbed the microfiber cloth and wiped the poly off, which was hard because it was curing and very sticky. I almost was hysterical by this point, lol. And next day rubbed the body with a brown paper bag. Strangely enough, the end, or should I say current, result isn't that bad. Doesn't look glossy-shiny, but something of a thin satin poly finish.

 

[barber76]

Was already attaching the photos... But decided to give it one more round of steel wool and poly... Hope dies last.

 

[Cagey]

Hope dies last.

Usually, because patience dies first. Especially with finish work.

 

[Rick]

Be zen when it comes to finishing.

 

[fdesalvo]

Make it thick and go through the finish sanding process. You got this!