Wife and I are remodeling the kitchen and for the time being we decided on putting in a butcher block countertop.

We wanted to stain and put polyurethane on it for color and ease of maintenance.

The stain was a bust. We tried the water based stain and it was horrible so we sanded it off.

From there we put the polyacrylic on the sanded wood.

No matter how I try to put it on it will either have dry patches, bubbles, or brush strokes.

I have tried slow brush strokes, fast brush strokes, thick and thin coats, I even wet the brush with water before one coat. I brush in the direction of the wood grain. I tried only in a left to right direction and also in a back and forth direction.

After sanding I wipe and even used a tack cloth.

i am using a Purty brush and only stirring the poly, no shaking.

Am I missing something or is this as good as it gets?

Never touched the stuff myself. Try a cloth going in circles instead?

https://www.ehow.com/info_8780992_fastest-polycrylic-prevent-air-bubbles.html

Not sure what's wrong. I always brushed it on heavy and fine steel wool between coats. Finish was like glass when done.

So I will assume the Butcher block is maple - using an all in one water based polyurethane stains is going to be problematic with maple as it does not absorb color equally across the grain especially water based. I like to use a sanding sealer first then an oil based stain applied and buffed off after it sets a few minutes with a cotton rag - then after that has dried for a few days you can apply a top coat of either water based Polyurethane or my preference oil based polyurethane. If these are "food" service areas then I would use a food grade mineral oil only on the bare wood and just touch it up occasionally.

Google 'butcher block care' - they need to be conditioned.

Adding a poly finish is not the way.

I've used a torch (heat gun would be better) to smooth polyurethane (and get bubbles out).
I've never used polyacrylic before, but the above may work for that product as well. You'd obviously want to test somewhere other than your counter top.
You are sanding between coats, right?

This guy has lots of tips for using acrylics on wood.

youtube.com/@BlacktailStudio/videos

I'd be concerned with scratching after being done