While doing major repair work to my cedar strip, I decided to add a couple of coats of epoxy ot fill in the repairs and scratches. The second coat of epoxy didn't cure properly, (Probably the mix was wrong), :oops: and after two weeks of trying almost everthing possible to get it to harden, or remove it, I decided to seal the bad finish, and attack it again next year.
I painted the canoe with spar varnish, cut %50 with laquer thinner, and let it dry. Two days later,an unexpected lay-off at work gave me more time to work on the canoe, so I decided to sand off the hardened varnish and go at the epoxy again.
The spar varnish apparently had hardened the epoxy underneath, and I had no problems sanding right through to the first coat. Needless to say I have smoothed the first coat again, added a second coat (mixed carefully and carefully stirred). I am now in the process of putting another coat of spar varnish.
There were some areas of the canoe that I hadn't put very much spar varnish on, and these areas were still gummy, so I conclude the %50 cut of laquer thinner and varnish acted as a hardner. I tried laquer thinner straight from the can, but it had no visible effect on the epoxy.