Time to think about the wood.

[MHBsailor]

Great post Terry

One area that I would like to learn more about is brush selection. I imagine this is one area not to "cheap out" on if you want to get that gorgeous varnished teak on the coaming boards.

[John Stone]

Ok. Let’s take a breath. What Terry described is what he did 50 years ago. That is not how we varnish today. There is no 1000 grit sanding. We never wax varnish. One coat per day. Period.

A good quality spar varnish is applied in a straight forward manner. Tape off the wood to be varnished. Sand with 220 for all your coats with one small exception. Apply varnish. Wait 24 hours. Sand. Apply varnish. Wait 24 hours. Keep going till you fill the grain. You might use 320 sanding for the last coat if you wish. Once you have the wood properly varnished, you apply exterior maintenance coats several times per year depending on where you live. Interior wood can go a decade or more without any more varnish.

I use Jen-poly foam brushes. I have used expensive badger hair brushes and have gone to good quality disposable foam as have many brightwork pros.

[csoule13]

For someone with little experience varnishing, I followed roughly what John has said, roughly what Lou Sauzedde from "Ask a Shipwright" suggested. I used Le Tonkinois for a varnish. Prepped the surface per the instructions on the can. Prepped the varnish per the instructions on the can. Applied with a 3ish inch foam roller and a Jen-poly foam brush to tip it out. Followed the instructions on the can for how to handle between coats.

This is five coats, because I was running out of sailing season. It has another two on it now and ready to go. I was working in a basement that is anything but dust free and unless you tip the thing just sun in the light, it looks very good.
It's for my Dad's Ericson 30+.

Would second the book John suggested. Santa brought it this year, and it's spurred a number of ideas moving forward.

Chris

[John Stone]

While John's solution of capping the cockpit combings with raw teak is elegant and effective, it would not work well with the original Spartan cleats. It will require additional masking and some sort of treatment when things get refreshed.

I have used brass, half oval, in a variety of locations where wear is a problem. I haven't done the combing tops, yet but do have the material. That means I have technically started to do it. A couple of advantages of using brass are that it can simply be removed when it is time to refinish the bright work and it wears very well. I have used it in different locations where the teak could see some chafe. It comes in different widths so you can get whatever size, suits the location it is intended to protect. It looks right on our boats. It is easy to work with and also easy on your lines and is probably cheaper than adding additional teak.

The teak cap certainly adds some strength to the combing boards and works well for John because he is using different cleats. It just might not work for all of us, Steve.

Steve is correct. I think the original spartan coamings cleat would require a small adapter (if you added the same thickness teak cap I used) which could be made from a piece of teak or better yet 1/4” silicon bronze.

I ripped a 1 1/8” wide stave from a scrap 3/4”’thick teak plank and scarfed two lengths together to make the cap. And if you have to purchase a small offcut of teak you’ll have any remaining teak for a whole host of other small wood projects. On the other hand the brass half oval will work and it does not require you to do any woodwork...simple as this project is.

Keep in mind the teak cap is proud of the coamings on both side, i.e. is overhangs the coamings. That allows us to varnish the coamings without having to tape the cap off from the coamings. We never remove the cap. It’s a quick and effective way of allowing you to “cut-in” without taping.

[Sea Hunt Video]

I post in defense of Cetol Marine Natural Teak and Cetol Clear Gloss. No, your teak will not look like someone spent 136 hours prepping, sanding, applying varnish, sanding, prepping, applying varnish, prepping, sanding, applying varnish, prepping, sanding, applying varnish, prepping, sanding, applying varnish; well, you get the idea. After 10-12 coats your are close to being done - but not done yet.

Alternatively, sand the teak so it has a little "bite" in the material. Apply a coat of Cetol Marine Natural Teak using an inexpensive foam brush. Easy to apply, easy to fix "mistakes", easy cleanup. Throw away the foam brush. When dry, apply 2nd coat with a new foam brush. When dry apply 3rd coat with a new foam brush. No need to sand and prep in between coats. When dry apply a coat of Cetol Clear Gloss with a new brush. When dry apply 2nd coat Cetol Clear Gloss with a new brush.

Eazy peazy weazy

Will it win awards at the annual varnished teak festival Probably not. But, it will allow you spend more time on the water and less time sanding, prepping, fixing mistakes, etc. And your teak will look nice; not perfect but nice.

JMTC and that is candidly all it is worth.

[Frenchy]

Here, here - Roberto. You said it better than I could. Cetol is the most popular finish for a reason. For the amount
of work involved, it looks very nice. The best part is that upkeep consists of a scotch brite rubdown of the gloss once a
year and a recoat. Outdoors, where varnishing is very frustrating because of all the tree chaff, bugs and dust, the
Cetol is a little more forgiving because of its slight murkiness. It's a good energy and time-efficient product for
those who don't insist on absolute beauty at any cost. - Jean

[Carl Thunberg]

I see no one has weighed in on the heat gun question. I have a Milwaukee and I'm very happy with it. I like to think it's actually made in Milwaukee, but . . .
For what it's worth, every boat I have ever owned (except my Boston Whaler) has been finished with Epifanes varnish. Never dip directly into the can unless you plan to use the entire can. Also, I have never been able to varnish anything with the boat in the water. Our summers in Maine are short, and the sea breeze in the middle of the day doesn't allow for varnishing on the boat. I do my varnishing on the hard in spring and fall. I don't consider varnishing to be work, especially while listening to Roberto's favorite baseball team on the radio.

[Sea Hunt Video]

Someone mentioned baseball so ...............
My beloved Boston Red Sox begin their march to the World Series on Thursday, 28 March with a four (4) game away series against Seattle Mariners.

From all I have read Epifanes is one of the very best varnishes on the market. It is, however, expensive and requires careful, detailed prep, and many, many coats. When done right it is breathtaking.

As a youngster I listened to many Red Sox games on the radio in the kitchen and filled in a box score sheet I made up; milk and cookies at the ready. I now prefer to watch my beloved Red Sox on TV with a beer, brats, pasta, etc.

[John Stone]

From all I have read Epifanes is one of the very best varnishes on the market. It is, however, expensive and requires careful, detailed prep, and many, many coats. When done right it is breathtaking.

Pish posh. We are not talking about solving world hunger. Epifanes is a good varnish. All ya have to do is tape. And sand between each coat. Lightly. Apply varnish with a foam brush. Repeat till you're satisfied. The more detailed you are the better it will look. True of most anything you do in life.

Having said all that, I do think it’s important to avoid trying to varnish more wood than you can enjoyably maintain.

While I often speak the of the many virtues of varnish I have intentionally limited what exterior teak/wood I varnish. I have no toe rails. I have no eyebrow strips. I have no cabin top grab rails. I made the dorado boxes in such a way they can be left bare. Same for the boom gallows. I varnish the coamings three to four times per year and the bow sprit about the same. That’s it.

I think a little done very well is much better than a lot done mediocre to average. Varnishing is not for everyone. But it is not difficult if you approach it in an organized and calculating manner. Much of our teak can be left bare, eliminating a lot of unnecessary work. I for one would never attemp to varnish a toe rail. But I know lots of folks that do and they enjoy it. To each their own.

[jen1722terry]

Great thread.

On brushes, I use dollar store and flea-market brushes for varnishing and painting. I can do fine edges better with a bristle brush than with a foam brush. I avoid cheap chip brushes, as they tend to shed bristles. Dollar store brushes don't cost much more. I've found good brushes at flea markets for a few dollars each, including some of those nice brushes with the bristles in an oval shape which I love for fine and trim work, both on the boat and our waterfront, south-facing home in Canada that requires paint touch-up each year.

I'm not sure I agree with John on the obsolescence of my varnishing technique. I was talking about varnishing yacht transoms, something we CD owners don't do. Large vertical surfaces and overhanging wood transoms are still tricky to varnish well. Many of our yard customers were very fussy about their transoms, which bore the name and hailing port in expensive gold leaf. We wet-sanded the top coat with fine grades of paper to get a super smooth high polish, then used wax to cover the slight hazing that can remain after the wet-sanding. The wax is easy to remove with a mineral spirits wipe-down (a good idea before any varnish job for it also removes surfaces oils which impair adhesion.

While wood transoms are certainly rarer now, there's still enough around that I've helped or advised many friends over the years to get the varnish right, particularly during my volunteer years at a local museum. Some wooden boats are almost jewel-like in their level of preservation and fine bright work is intrinsic to their beauty.

As far as our own CD 31, we're with Steve on our use of Cetol. We're in Maine all season and the nice weather is rarer up there. After heat-gunning off the old Bristol Finish, we built up a finish using Cetol Natural Teak with an annual mid-summer recoat with Cetol Clear. Works well enough. We prep with a fresh water rinse, followed by a light but thorough rub-down with nylon pads and a mineral spirits wipe-down. I do find that I still thin quite a bit and I still use a bit of lacquer thinner if the temps or humidity are not ideal (the norm in Maine). We never wax. Also, we cheat quite a bit in that our cockpit combings, hand rails and our one dorade box have custom Sunbella covers. We'll remove the covers now and then, but they save lots of work to keep the sun off the finish.

In general, there are many good clear finishes out there. They all probably work very well if properly applied and maintained. In the future, we may be forced to use all water-based clear finishes. I've tried them a few times. They seem to have lower concentrations of solids and you can't really add things to accelerate drying and prevent runs and sags. Such is progress in the no-or-low VOC age.

Cheers!

J

[K Chiswell]

For years I have done as John says. I’m a long time Epifanes user. Apply, sand, repeat. A little over a year ago I started using Epifanes WoodFinish glosss. It can be recoated with 72 hours without sanding. It can also be applied over their traditional varnish or be top coated with the traditional varnish. It greatly speeds up the build coats.

I still use thinned traditional varnish for the first coat, sand with 220, then apply 3 coats of WoodFinish, sand with 220, apply 2 or 3 more coats of WoodFinish sand with 320 and then top coat. I cannot tell the areas done with only traditional varnish from those done with WoodFinish. There is one exception, if I use WoodFinish for the first coat it takes a slightly different color than the areas done with traditional varnish.

[mgphl52]

I still prefer to leave my teak natural and spend all that 'varnish, sand, varnish, sand...' time either sailing or riding my motorcycle...

[Dick Kobayashi]

Time to think about the wood (last days of winter here in NE) or if you are like me and a few others in this thread, "time not to think about the wood". Main point: Teak does not need to be protected by varnish, cetol or other stuff. Only owners (some of them) need their wood trim treated. One of the positive characteristics of Susan B when I bought her in 2001 was that this 1983 boat had NEVER seen varnish. And she hasn't seen varnish in the time I have owned her. So, after almost 35 years without teak treatment how does her teak stand up. Answer: Just fine.

I do have a cleaning regime though. Pre launch I clean most of the mildrew and related off the teak with a homeowner style power washer, taking care not to use so much pressure that the wood is damaged. Takes about an hour...And then all the teak is that nice ash gray color I dearly love...because I know what it represents.

An hour's work on a warm spring day with a Guiness in hand does it.

I must confess though that after power washing the hatch boards and letting them dry, I do apply a little teak oil. This task never takes more than 20 minutes.

There is an old design adage which originated somewhere "Less is more". Plus which, John Vigor has strongly advised that the only time to consider (not perform, just consider) teak work is the month before you sell the boat.

[mgphl52]

Thanks for the reply, Dick! That makes at least 2 of us...

[John Stone]

I agree with leaving exterior teak bare. In fact I have no varnished exterior teak on the Far Reach. The coamings are mahogany so they are varnished and the bowsprit is Doug Fir and it is varnished. The teak dorades, winch base pads, companionway drop boards are bare as is the ash sculling oar. The gallows is bare Iroko. The teak bulwarks cap-rail is painted white. The only varnished teak on the boat is the companionway trim. All the remaining interior teak and black walnut is bare. The vertical V Groove is African Mahogany and its varnished.

I like varnished teak. It’s gorgeous. No other wood glows under varnish like teak. But if you don’t want to be a slave to it then you have to be thoughtful about what exterior teak gets varnished. But my point has been that varnishing does not have to be this terrible event that people make it out to be...if you keep up with it.

Some folks are totally fine with bare teak that turns silver grey while others don’t like it. Some people enjoy very much the time spent varnishing. So, beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder. But, however you define it, I agree with Keats’ observation that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”