Hi Everyone, I'm new to this group and to woodworking. I'm in the process of finishing my first "real" furniture project. I'm using walnut to create a media cabinet. I bought the walnut from Owl Hardwood. I believe it's kiln dried. The project was going great until the finishing phase. Here's what I've done: a light layer of boiled linseed oil (BLO), followed by dewaxed shellac (Seal Coat from Zinsser), then one layer of General Finishes Arm R Seal satin - light sanding, then another layer of Arm R Seal satin. This is where the problem came in. The second layer produced a horrible plastic appearance. I went from a nice clear, grain showing finish to something that looked like it came out of a plastic assembly mold. That's a little exaggerated but it took on a terrible gloss and genuinely looked like raised grain plastic. I showed it to somebody at owl hardwood and they thought maybe the dewaxed shellac and arm r seal somehow interacted. Perhaps I sanded the first coat of arm r seal too much. Regardless, they suggested using steel wool to take off the gloss. This helped but I'm still left with the plastic look and lost the beautiful appearance of the wood. I tried sanding and refinishing but got the expected blotches of leftover finish the sanding hadn't reached. I'm now thinking I need to strip it all off and start over but would welcome any other suggestions, as the dropping temp in Chicago has me worried about finishing. Can anyone suggest an alternate path back to grain showing, satin finish? If not, can you recommend a varnish / shellac stripper? What am I in for there? Will it take off the BLO? Will it harm the wood , or make the newly applied finish cloudy? Will I have to do both sides of the wood, as only the outside did this plastic thing. I hadn't put dewaxed shellac on the inside. Perhaps that was the problem? Any help is greatly appreciated. I was so close to having a piece of furniture to be proud of and now I'm a little sick inside. Thank you, in advance, for your help. Kevin