There's a very pleasing genre of video which is just "master craftswoman who has been at this for 40 years works on a project while rambling about every bit of her trade"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou4HyS68Nfk

After trying a bunch of brush technique changes and going for a thicker application...my second coat is somehow even worse than the first. Fuck, I wanted to have this done before the party on Sunday. Now I have to reassemble the sink, clean up all the newspaper and tape, clean, host, and set it all up again after.

Next round I'm gonna try thinning it a bit with mineral spirits, and also dipping the brush in spirits first.

This time I hung sheets around the workpiece, closed the windows, turned off the air, misted down everything every 30 minutes with a spray bottle full of water, used a tack cloth continuously during sanding instead of letting it build up, and dipped my brush in mineral spirits to displace air bubbles before first brushing. Five hours later...

Still bubbles everywhere. Goddammit.

I know it's not dust because I can break them with a well-placed drop of mineral spirits.

This is my best coat yet, and it proudly highlights one (1) Freddie hair.

Seriously, it doesn't seem to matter how many tests I do, every time I do a coat of varnish it does something new and awful. Surprise! You thought you resealed the can but now there's a skin inside! Surprise! You poured wrong and now there are ten thousand bubbles in the cup. Surprise! Your tipping technique was *slightly* uneven and now there's a huge ridge. Surprise! Ripples for no clear reason. Surprise! White spots!

After two weeks of this nonsense--huge dust control sheets, the kitchen being a disaster zone, wearing a respirator to enter the house for half the day... I am declaring defeat. This is as good as it's going to get. It is covered in bubbles and has a few visible lap marks, but it is at least watertight now.

I'll give it a month to cure and knock down the worst offenders with 1000-grit and a buffing wheel.