The last coat of varnish was a year ago, what now

[knots]

Last summer I put a bunch of coats (10?) of varnish and my little 14 foot Tollycraft and then stopped. After a year Im sure it is good and hard. I would like to put to more on and finish her up. Yesterday I bought new brushes, rags, mineral spirits, and burgundy scotch pads. So here is my question, will the scotch pad scuff up the varnish enough or should I sand with paper and if so what level of grit.

Thank you

Norm

[Dan McCosh]

Last summer I put a bunch of coats (10?) of varnish and my little 14 foot Tollycraft and then stopped. After a year Im sure it is good and hard. I would like to put to more on and finish her up. Yesterday I bought new brushes, rags, mineral spirits, and burgundy scotch pads. So here is my question, will the scotch pad scuff up the varnish enough or should I sand with paper and if so what level of grit.

Thank you

Norm

i think it's a matter of taste. Scuffing for adhesion is one thing, but if you want to level the surface for a fine finish, I like 120-grit wet/dry, used wet. Others will use something else. Often, we do a quick wipe with 100-grit, but we don't look for a mirror.

[Jay Greer]

Scotch Brite pads on old varnish are not as effective as 120 grit sand paper as they do not cut in the same manner as sand paper will. In the case you are dealing with, you are seeking to remove at least the first coat of the old varnish in order to provide a tooth and to avoid excessive build up of varnish coats which, can eventually blister or peel.
Although I don't like the stuff for varnish work, I just used some Scotch Brite on a current job that involves ogee molding. Since the pads are flexible, they curved into the molding curves on a raised panel door I am dealing with. For this pupose they work rather well except, that there is a tremendous amound of debris created by the sluffing off of the pad material itself. Since the door is not aboard a boat, it was of no consequense as it can be easily blown off with a pressure hose. However, unless you are willing to deal with gritty material all over your boat that must be thoroughly cleaned up and off in order to not get into the fresh varnish, I would opt for the sand paper which is cleaner and will cut better on your year old varnish.
Jay

[Bob Cleek]

120 grit sanding for leveling and for taking off a tired top layer. I only use the burgundy (coarse) scotchbrite pads (dry) for skuffing between coats when laying up a number of coats, mainly because they leave less sanding residue to clean up, last longer than sandpaper, conform to curved surfaces easily, and are less costly. I've never had any problem with the pads breaking up and leaving a mess and I've used them a lot. I have had such pads fall apart after using them WET for a while on coarse surfaces, but not on dry relatively smooth surfaces. I don't know why Jay's broke up on him, but it would seem six of one and half dozen of the other. If you sand, you've got to vacuum and tack the surface anyway.