On Jun 2, 11:41 am, Robatoy wrote:

You did stir well? The matting compound sinks to the bottom and the
top layer is therefore high gloss.
I'm not saying that is what happened but not uncommon.

Probably more common than it should be.

If that is not the case, and you DID mix well, consider this:

The flattening materials in your finish are finely ground particulates
held suspended in solution by the viscosity of the material. (When
well stirred!)

But look at your material and its application. The reason you have to
put 10 coats of finish on your piece is because the thickness of the
material left behind is quite thin. You apply the material, and wipe
a great deal of it off. This means you are wiping off the flattening
agents as well as the resin finish.

So when you apply a top coat of a product with a different reflective
factor, you will probably have to apply several coats to acheive "semi
gloss" as you final gloss. And since you are going over a previously
finished area, you are probably not putting on as much finish as you
think. If you are putting the new finish down on a smooth, previously
finished project and then wiping smooth, you may have less than a mil
of finish actually on the surface.

That will probably dry to less than 1/2, probably more like 1/3 of a
mil of finish. Check out the manufacturer's recommended final finish
thickness; I would almost bet without seeing the stuff it will be 3
mil.

Of course, all of the above depends on your "hand" and application
technique, but if I were you I would keep putting on the finish to get
to the desired gloss/reflectivity.

Personally, I know there is a large camp of folks that like to use the
gloss, then knock it back with 4X steel wool or a scoth brite pad,
but getting every single crack, crevice, corner, and detail finished
to exactly the same reflectivity perfectly across the whole project
can take a huge amount of time.

Just keep on going, you'll get there.

Next time, you might want to start with a piece of scrap from your
project and try the semi gloss on all coats compared to your present
method of half semi and half full gloss. Depending on the actual
finish, there probably won't be that much difference in the final
appearance.

Robert