CONTINUOUSWAVE

Q1: what is the best varnish for wood?

Q2: what is the best treatment for wood?

ASIDE:

I recently purchased 1971 21 Outrage stencil number 00172 that had been in storage for about 15 years. I will be refinishing wood as soon as I have time.

1971outrage wrote:Q1: what is the best varnish for wood?

Q2: what is the best treatment for wood?

See the REFERENCE section article on wood care at

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... rWood.html

Generally if the wood is mahogany a varnish finish is preferred.

If the wood is teak, some leave it a natural gray if used in saltwater; some use oil to maintain the natural color, wih frequent re-oiling; some apply varnish and build a dozen or more coats.

If teak is exposed to freshwater and sunlight, mildew will tend to form in the wood grain.

1971outrage wrote:Q1: what is the best varnish for wood?

Q2: what is the best treatment for wood?

ASIDE:

I recently purchased 1971 21 Outrage stencil number 00172 that had been in storage for about 15 years. I will be refinishing wood as soon as I have time.

This is like a paper or plastic bag question - lots of opinions.

Personally for varnished woods, I prefer Epifanes high gloss clear varnish followed with a minimum of 2 coats of urethane clear coat sprayed. With varnish, the more coats the better (to a point). I like 8-9 coats.



For teak, I prefer oiled wood after it's cleaned properly

D-

It's teak. The varnish on it is most likely the original.

Thank you.
Chris

1971outrage wrote:It's teak. The varnish on it is most likely the original.

Thank you.
Chris

For teak let me break it out to Exterior and interior.

For exterior teak I prefer to use a 2 part cleaner (Snappy Teak Nu) and when done I apply several coats of Tip Top Teak Oil, It more oil than sealants and maintains the look and feel of teak. We used this on my fathers boat with teak deck from 1976 - 1998 and in the early years I could have been considered slave labor, but the boat always looked great. I used this same process on the teak bow hatch of my Montauk 17 and it looked great.

For interior teak the maint is far less and every several years (4 - 6) I use Dalys Seafin Teak Oil and it makes the teak look like new, The process takes time and and I wet sand the teak with 320 grit sand paper, then apply teak oil and let stand for five to ten minutes, then wipe off excess teak oil and allow it to dry. Repeat using 500 grit, then 800 or 1000 grit and wipe clean after each sanding. This provides a high end oiled finsh that is smooth to the touch and lasts a long time.

Nordic Tug interior teak can be viewed at this site nd after 22 years, the interior teak still looks new on our boat. https://www.nordictugs.com/nt-34/

D-

I totally agree with everything said above. If you want to put the time in the oil based varnish's look the best. But, it takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and if it is on the outside of the boat, maintenance will take a tremendous amount of time as well.

While restoring my boat I began the project with McClosky Man O War oil based varnish Gloss. Days and in some cases breaking up the work into weeks are required and the mahogany I finished looked like a dining room table quality finish.

My boat is used hard with multiple friends running downriggers gaff's, nets, etc. which means damage will happen so I felt that I needed to make a change to something that was more user friendly to maintain.

I made a switch to Totalboat Halcyon Rugged Amber Gloss. It is a water base Varnish that is incredibly easy to use. It can be re-applied in 1 hour up to 5 coats in one day so the work goes fast and the finish is not bad. Best of all it comes in a bag, you can poor what you plan to use into a cup and when you finish poor the remaining unused portion back into the bag. Cleanup is as simple as rinsing off your brush and cup into your sink.

To prevent the sun bleaching out the wood under the finish I used Minwax Pre-stain then Zar Oil Based Interior wood stain in 120 Teak Natural color and then top coated it with several colors of the Halcyon. I will say when you take a close look it isn't as rich looking as the oil based Varnishes. But it is close enough that nobody noticed the difference.




In this picture are the two different finishes. The mohagany on the side of the wall is the oil based varnish. The top cap is 6 coats of Totalboat Halcyon. The difference is more prevalent in the picture than when you look at it in normal daylight.

I used the Pre-Stain, Zar 120 Teak Natural stain and Totalboat Halcyon on the gunwales of my 1980 Revenge 22 as well. They came out beautiful.