Because this is the last coat of varnish that I am going to put on the Ronan I was very careful to try to avoid sags and runs, and to get good coverage over the entire hull. I walked around kayak several times with a bright LED shop light, and so far, so good. Of course, after I was finished I did a ridiculously boneheaded thing. I was cleaning up my varnish cup and I was putting the paper towels that I wiped the cup out with into the small, steel rubbish bin that I keep in the shop, and seeing that the can was pretty full, shoved everything down into the bin to compact it. Of course, it didn’t occur to me until I was in the act of smashing the stuff down that it would almost certainly to force a bunch of dust out of the can and into the air around my freshly varnished kayak!

Pro tip: If you are building a kayak, DON’T DO THAT!

The kayak still looks fine, but I’m sure there would be fewer dust specks in the varnish if I hadn’t done that.

A reminder that these photos were taken immediately after I finished varnishing. The varnish will self-level and be much smoother in a few hours.