On Apr 23, 7:49 am, Mike wrote:
I've finished putting the final coat of Helmsman on my bar top and it looks absolutely stunning!

SNIP

Any other suggestions/recommendations?

Congrats on the new top!

Beware of any advice you get on the processes you are asking about
from anyone.

No one knows how thick you put the finish on. Less finish means less
material to sand off and polish. If your final desired thickness is
somewhere around 3 - 4 mil, you may only be a little thicker than
that now. Hitting it with sandpaper, then buffing it out through the
grades of polish to get out the scratches left by 400 grit could
easily take the coating down to a thickness top that is too thin to be
useful as a bar top. Bar tops take a pretty good beating.

Just my 0.02 here, but an exterior rated varnish wouldn't have been my
first choice for the project.

"Spar varnish" was developed to be water resistant as its first task,
and UV resistant as its second. Unfortunately most UV inhibitors make
finishes softer when cured. This is good for the boat guys and for
your outdoor furniture that is exposed to the elements as this
flexibility will help keep it from cracking off, exposing the wood
below. You can polish it out to make it really shiny, but it will
never have the durability of interior rated finishes. Typically these
have no UV inhibitors or only tiny amounts so you can put your piece
by sunny window without disaster.

If you piece is outside by the BBQ pit, good choice. Inside, there
are probably better choices, finshes that are selected based on their
abrasion resistance.

Before you get in the middle of buffing out the top, you will probably
need to let the top hard cure for about 30-45 days after your last
application of finish. Green time cure time on these finishes is
about 15 days or so, but on this particular finish you should contact
the manufacturer.

Be careful in what you do, and if you are 95% happy with your finish I
would leave it alone. You know where all the faults are, so you see
them when you look at them. Others won't, and you will move onto
other projects.

If it turned out the way you wanted that's the best thing. Even
without the abrasion resistance of a harder finish this one should
last a long time with some care.

Robert