The Newest Release From Clean Armor. 716 Wiping Varnish! Part 1

No more brushing or spraying. Just wipe on and buff off and cure. That is it.. This is a 2 part series for this new game changing product.

It's finally here. The latest product release from Clean Armor called 716 wiping varnish. I've been waiting for them to release a product exactly like this. This is part one in a two-part series. Utah, give me two. Yes, two parts. This is a game changing finish, a UV wiping varnish that combines speed and durability. I'm excited to show you just how amazing this product is.

In part one of this series on Clean Armor 716, I'm going to go over the basics of how to apply it, what it looks like, and how it cures. In the second part, I'm going to go a little mad scientist on this new finish by adding some ingredients to it for adjusting the sheen. The manufacturer most likely wouldn't want me to show you this. This new release from Clean Armor solves so many application questions that I hear from first time users of Clean Armor 700 and 757. The most common question I get on the website is, "My finish won't cure. What am I doing wrong?" The answer is almost always, "You put it on too thin." That's where the 716 comes in and solves that problem. Clean Armor 700 and 757 finishes are film forming and require enough film thickness to be applied for the curing process to work. You can't just wipe it on and buff it off. 716 gets around this rule by adding different chemistry to the resins. In non-technical terms, there are a few ways that clean armor is cured with a UV light source. from the top down, from the bottom up, and from the middle outwards. This is the first product from Clean Armor that cures from the middle through the top and bottom simultaneously, eliminating the need for a specific film thickness. Now that we're done with the technical mumbo jumbo, let's see how this stuff actually applies and performs. I'm going to be using the 716 on one of my project tables. I'm not going to bore you with the sanding portion of this, but just know that I started with 80 grit from my overhead sander and I worked through successive grits up to 500. Since clean armor does not raise the grain, having the smoothest possible surface to begin with is critical to your success, especially with a wiping varnish like this. I'm not going to be adding any isopropyl alcohol to this, but I will be straining it through my 190 micron filter. Today I'm going to be applying this with my Trimaco stain pad available for sale in my application kit on my website. Pour a small amount of the 716 onto your surface and start working it around. No need to worry about direction or technique. Go cross grain, up, down, right, left. It really doesn't matter. We're simply just working this finish into the grain and letting it soak in for an even sheen. Move the finish around to areas that are absorbing it more than others. If you feel it's a little too dry, add another dash of the finish and continue to work it into the wood. On a top this size, it should take me around 3 minutes. Now that we're getting close to fully absorbed, let's start focusing on our finished strokes. Use the saturated side of the pad and go with the grain. Do this a few times to get the finish to start laying down in that direction. Next, you're going to want to flip over the pad to the dry side, removing any other finish that you see until the wood looks dry. Now, let's cure this for the full 2 minutes under our Pro Model light. Perfect cure. If we were trying this with 700 or 757, this would not have fully cured and we would have been left with a sticky feeling residue. With this single application, it is now durable enough to be put right back into use. But for this demo, I'm going to be applying two coats. Let's sand this down with some 500 grit to de-nib the surface, tack it down, and apply the final coat. There's enough finish left in my Trico stain pad that most likely I won't have to add any more finish to this project for the second coat. This 716 goes a long way for coverage. I'm using very little of this finish to get a durable clear coat in almost no time at all. After this second cure, you can see that Clean Armor 716 really shows off the grain like a typical oil rubbed or wax finish. No other Clean Armor product cures like this. If you're looking for a natural hand rubbed look, 716 is what you should be buying. Not the 700 and certainly not the 757. By wiping on the finish, you eliminate the issue of leaving behind brush marks. There is not a single blemish to be found on this table at all. Well, that does it for part one of this series. In part two, we get a little crazy and try to break all the rules when applying this finish. We're going to be adding a few substances of our own into the mix to turn it from a high gloss finish to dead flat like an oil rubbed finish. I love to push the limits of what is possible with these new products. The manufacturer of Clean Armor might not approve of what we're about to do, but let's see what we can get away with. See you in part two.