Hi all,

I'm (trying) to finish the top of a very long (12') stained pine bench with Varathane exterior grade glossy polyurethane (it's for a mud room; it's going to get wet). No matter what I do, I'm still seeing brush marks in it. The weird thing is that I've done almost exactly the same project with the exact same materials - boards from the same source, same stain, same poly, the exact same brush even - before (except that one was a 7' bench, not 12'), and I had great results, even though I had to finish that bench outside since I had no shop at the time. I'm far from a finishing expert, but I've used this stuff a few times and been very happy.

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There isn't too much heat or humidity here today - I don't have exact numbers, but would judge it to be a very pleasant room temperature. The bench top is indoors, so no direct sun, and there's a light breeze in the shop, but nothing crazy.

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I had initially started with a can of poly that I had from the previous project, and was wondering if I might be losing some open time since it was older. I knocked the ridges down with the sander, got a brand new can of poly, and there's no improvement.

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My brush was cleaned and dried thoroughly before I started and between every coat of poly that I've done, and I don't start sanding for the next coat until the poly is no longer tacky.

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What am I doing wrong?

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Thanks!