TotalBoat Lust Marine Varnish

I am SO angry regarding the performance of this varnish!!! For starters it was thick and hard to work with - didn’t anticipate that so I didn’t have the proper thinner on hand - just had to work quickly and with LOTS of elbow grease to get an even, smooth coat. Immediately after putting on the first coat I had concerns as the finish was VERY shiny. I specifically ordered the MATTE finish to avoid that. After a little over an hour it was still very shiny so I assumed it would dull down after several coats and thorough dry time. I applied a 2nd coat. The following morning the finish was still ridiculously shiny AND now there were many ‘bumpy’ areas where the finish had either gotten gunked up or it raised the grain of the wood - I won’t know until I sand it down. Yeah, I’m going to have to sand the whole surface of the wood and start over with something else!!! I’m beyond PISSED OFF. I don’t know how other people got good results but I sure didn’t!!! You’ve been warned!!!

Use the wood sealer. Then the matte finish. The thinner is a product u can buy off the shelf. Also i only used thinner - on second job… to clean brush after. Do the sealer. Light sand. Then just a foam brush and foam roller. Goes on thick. You DO NOT NEED TO CUT EITHER PRODUCT.First small job i treated product as you would common varnish where u cut it… and thin thin thin. THIS IS WRONG. Caused more imperfections in my finish which out weighed any help spreading the finish the thinner may have hadGoes on thick. Matte did not yellow my red cedar too much which is what I wanted to avoid. Outdoor protection w/o the yellowing of most oil applications.

This stuff is a great finish! It’s the first time for me using it and I love it. I was going to use Epifanes varnish but I couldn’t justify the cost, so I rolled the dice with TotalBoat. I’m glad I did. I used a foam brush on my sample piece. I thought I would spray the end project but now I’m not so sure. You can’t tell it wasn’t sprayed. IMOI’m making a raised mobile garden using African Mahogany. The final finish will be 2 coats 10% Epifanes mahogany stain (killer) in 90% TotalBoat “Lust” Gloss. Then 3 coats T.B. “Lust” Matte (no stain). The test piece in the picture has 3 coats 10% Epifanes mahogany stain in solution 90% T.B. Matte. Here’s the bottom line…. It’s a test piece so no particular care was taken…… the results ….Looks Just Like the Pictures in the Brochure. Can’t often say that.

I have an outdoor covered kitchen that emulates the kitchen in the house. Needless to say it sure requires maintenance to keep it looking good. In the past I have tried all different varnishes with limited success. They always look good when first applied but give it a year in the Texas elements and they deteriorate. So this time I thought I would try this lust varnish. The kitchen was looking pretty rough. First I sanded it all down, patched, and re-stained it. Next I applied the lust high gloss marine varnish as directed. First I started with a quart of the high gloss. I did three coats with this. First 50% dilution, then 30% dilution, then 20% dilution. I allowed this to dry since I did not have my can of matte finish yet. I have to say it looked great and pretty flawless at this point. I am not a fan of shiny finish so I waited for the can of matte finish to arrive. First I scuffed the surface with 800 grit scuff pads and cleaned it off. This step was a royal pain and I wish I had all the cans available on the same day. The directions state the matte finish can only be used as final coats and high gloss must be the initial coats. I applied the matte fnish at 20% dilution for 2 coats. I was a little horrified because some areas became hazy as opposed to matte. I did thoroughly mix it and mix it as I as working with it. It must have something to do with the flattening agent or the Texas weather. I also noted as time went one it will gel up in the container I was using. I ended up doing an extra undiluted coat on the areas that were hazy that helped with the haze. The final product turned out pretty nice but not perfect. Perhaps a sprayer would have been better. The real test will be if this nice finish lasts in the Texas elements. I have used other marine varnish in the past and they do not hold up. I also never put on five coats of those varnishes. This is definitely a time consuming process, I hope it will be worth it. There is no way you will find a reasonably priced contractor that will be willing to do five coats of this. The previous varnishes I had were applied by paint contractors and sprayed on but only two coats. If you want this much effort it is going to be a DIY job. Only time will tell if it holds up. Also a small can goes a long way considering you have to dilute it. One quart can would be more than enough to have done five coats on this outdoor kitchen, there is another section opposite the grill that is the same length. So I would have saved myself the cost of the extra can if I stuck with the high gloss finish. I may use the left over on my french doors.

I read the directions and followed them exactly as indicated on the label. Temperature, humidity, substrate temperature all were at 70 Fahrenheit. Finish went on very smooth and even, I made sure (again) I used a good brush and finishing method.Here comes the bad part: when the varnish dried, the finish had splotches/patches of an off-white milky nature. I waited until it completely dried and sanded, reapplied sanded and then had to finish the piece with Rubio Monocoat to salvage the finish. Not recommended by any means and I won't use the product again.