No, not at all off topic. I put oil and one coat on everything, inside and
out. Three coats on everything outside, and planned on six coats on the
top. Butternut is pretty soft, and I though a thicker varnish might provide
a little more protection.
Is this off base? Should I have put less on?

Little off topic thought - The desk I reside at I built last year. It is
solid Oak except for the top, which I made out of ply thinking someday it
would need replaced. For a finish, i used 1 coat of danish oil and 3
coats of the wipe on poly. To date, the top still looks good as new even
after a year of holding pizza crumbs, beers, coffee, etc, etc, on a daily
basis without a coaster. Simply put, 3 coats of wipe on poly have held up
unbelieveably well, and you may also want to reconsider how many coats
your using. --dave

"toller" wrote in message
...
When I ran out of the Minwax wipe-on I usually use, I decided to make my
own by diluting Var poly with 25% more mineral spirits. It did just fine
until I did my 5th and final application. It was not at all
satisfactory; lumpy and varied appearance. I went at it with steel wool
and put down another final application. It was just as bad. More steel
wool; this time I diluted a bit thinner, but the result was the same. (I
expect the first 5 applications were uneven also, but I wasn't expecting
them to look finished, so it didn't matter)

I bought some Minwax wipe-on and it went on as even as can be.

Presumably I am doing something wrong, since so many of you talk about
making your own wipe-on. Any hints as to why I had problems? The home
made is about half the price of prepared, so I would like to keep using
it; but I have a feeling it is more than just dilute regular. Thanks.