Not long ago I was outside the shop in the shade brushing a coat of spar varnish on a bench for a client. While brushing away, knowing I had just enough time to get the job done, I managed to knock over the can and lose what was still left.

I rushed back into the shop for a quick scan and all I could find was a spray can of spar varnish that was half full. I grabbed it and went back outside and sprayed out the rest of the bench with the spray can, making sure to overlap the brushed area. Much to my surprise, I noticed that in the areas I over sprayed, the brush marks were much less noticeable so I sprayed a light coat over the rest of the bench top.

Overall, the spray really helped to level out the rest of the brush marks. I think what was going on here was that since the "emergency spar" was in a spray can, it had to have more thinner in the mix to allow the varnish to make it through the tiny spray nozzle. I'm thinking the thinner-rich spar varnish helped to thin out and level the previous brush coat.

Alan can be reached directly via email c/o Alan Noel Furniture Refinishing at alannoel@comcast.net .