I've got a piece of garapa that I'm making into an elevator car handrail. It's ~3/4" x 4" x 4'. I sanded it, then applied a fire coating, which dried fine. Then scuffed it and applied varnish over top. It's been 3 days and it's still tacky. Heat (85* overnight) made it worse, not better.

Any ideas why it's not drying properly? Fixes?

We've used the same fire coating + varnish on other wood and it dried fine, so it's not a flaw in the basic formula. But somehow the garapa is throwing a wrench in the works.