Hi,

I am a novice at finishing but this worked fairly well for me.

Starting with a new quart can of varnish, I folded up three sheets of Bounty paper towels to wipe with each time, and I put on a pair of cheap latex gloves each time to keep the mess down. Bounty paper towels are good quality and never once tore apart while wiping. I opened the new quart of varnish and poured some into a plastic dish, and closed the can up right away. I wiped the varnish on like I was polishing a car. I could varnish 1/2 of my boat in about 10 minutes, then turned the boat over in 6 hours when dry and did the other half. I did it this way through 2 coats without thinning. Between the rest of the coats I put some thinner in the varnish and shook it like crazy so it would be ready for the next morning. I sanded between coats 1 through 4. Then I was all sanded before starting coats 5 and 6, and as I had read someplace I put on coat 5 on my deck, waited 2 hours and wiped on another coat, waited 6 hours for it to dry and turned my boat over and did the hull the same way. This put two coat of varnish on in one day and give me some varnish depth. Then I sanded that and used the foam brush method the way Rob Mack does to get a final heavier gloss coat. I am a real amateur at finishing but this seemed to work pretty well for me. And I am also using the method of opening my propane torch and putting some in the varnish can so oxygen can't get to the varnish.

John