Undead Varnish

You may recall that I am in the process of refinishing the most-used portions of Eolian's interior.  The work has gone well - until the desk that is.

Here something very strange is happening.  Apparently there are zombies buried under the old finish.  A light sanding followed by a fresh coat had this result:  immediately after application, the old finish bubbled up, almost as if  it was stripper I had applied instead of varnish.  When the new varnish dried, I sanded off the ruined finish and applied another coat:  same result.  I know it is difficult to see in the picture, but when looking at the actual desk surface, there is a pattern visible - the bubbled sections look like wide brush strokes.

It was me that applied that old finish on the desk - 15 years ago - just the same as all the other portions of Eolian's interior that I have already successfully refinished.  I can think of no explanation for this undead varnish rising up under the new finish.

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Update:  I decided that the only solution is to scape the zombie varnish brains completely off:

Stripper removes zombie varnish brains

Undead Varnish