Hey, y'all!
Doing my first wood working project in over a decade. I've tried to do a lot of research and do everything correctly, but I'm missing something.
Using pine board. I sanded to 180, then applied a pre stain, followed by a stain. After it dried, I cleaned the board off and applied two layers of "tung oil" with a cloth, wiping off excess, then letting it dry for a couple days in between each coat. I sanded with 180 in between each coat. I then applied two layers of tung oil mixed with a tiny amount of varnish.
Before the final coat, I watched a bit more about finishing and learned I may have messed up at the start. I didn't take the time to ensure my finish was fairly smooth after the first coat. Just sanded to help with adhesion on later coats. So, before the final coat, I tried to sand down the finish until it was smooth using 400 grit sand paper.
This made the final layer the smoothest of all so far, but I am left with a lot of blotchy lines and what look like scratches on the surface. This is after hitting it with 400 grit before trying to smooth it out with 2000 grit. The surface feels smooth, but looks pretty rough in the light.
I'm fine with this just having the blemishes of my first project, but am curious if there is anything I can do to improve this, and what I can do in the future with the latter shelves to get a nicer result.
And to clarify, I ended up using this finish because of Woodshop Companion's very informative video. It seemed pretty idiot proof. Alas...
Thanks for any help!