touching up teak with Cetol

[Chas P]

OK so I'm getting ready to touch up the teak on my CD28 with Cetol Marine Gloss for the first time since I acquired "Infinity" last year. Her previous owner used Cetol and I'm happy with the look. In a couple of places, however, the finish has worn and peeled revealing gray wood. Was wondering if I can get away with sanding just those areas and giving them a few layers of Marine light followed by gloss and just hitting the surrounding areas with the scrub and gloss treatment. Will the 2 areas match or will I need to strip the whole piece of wood and start over? Any of you teak gurus out there have any knowledge to spare a teak neophyte?

Chas P.
Infinity



chasp@echobeach.com

[Larry DeMers]

No, you can go ahead with a spot treatment of the teak to get rid of the grey, then put on enough cetol lite to match the coloration of the surrounding teak. Follow by 3-4 coats of gloss. Tack rag in the beginning and between coats of gloss.

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

OK so I'm getting ready to touch up the teak on my CD28 with Cetol Marine Gloss for the first time since I acquired "Infinity" last year. Her previous owner used Cetol and I'm happy with the look. In a couple of places, however, the finish has worn and peeled revealing gray wood. Was wondering if I can get away with sanding just those areas and giving them a few layers of Marine light followed by gloss and just hitting the surrounding areas with the scrub and gloss treatment. Will the 2 areas match or will I need to strip the whole piece of wood and start over? Any of you teak gurus out there have any knowledge to spare a teak neophyte?

Chas P.
Infinity

demers@sgi.com

[Robert]

When I refinished all the exterior teak on my CD28, I discovered that the finished look of Cetol depends on the color of the teak when the Cetol is applied. When the teak is very light blonde, for example just after bleaching, the resulting Cetol color has kind of an orangish tint that many of the anti-Cetol crowd disparage. Teak with more of a lightly-toasted brown color gives much better results. I was pleasantly suprised how good it looked. Teak that is gray will result in a morbidly dark gray post-Cetol look. You definitely don't want that. I would suggest that for any bare gray teak, you first clean it with a commercial teak cleaner or with a mixture of detergent and bleach, and then let it dry and also let it "age" until it gets a nice toasty brown---not too dark---and then Cetol it. Good luck.

Robert
s/v Zephyr CD28 #230

[Larry DeMers]

That toasty brown look is simply the oils being drawn back to the surface of the teak. You can do a lite staining of the teak with a brown stain, wiped off immediately after application. This gives a highlight to the woods grain..the darker areas will turn a tad darker, and the liter areas will get darker, but in the same ratio as the dark areas got darker. We did this several years ago, and it really shows off the beautiful grain found in teak.

For spot repairs, continue to use Cetol base coat (lite or marine as you like) coat on coat, until the shade is close to what you have around it. It is really easy to do, even with freshly cleaned and bleached out wood (as when you bleach the wood to rid it of dark brown mildew spots).

Cheers,

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
CD30 on Lake Superior

When I refinished all the exterior teak on my CD28, I discovered that the finished look of Cetol depends on the color of the teak when the Cetol is applied. When the teak is very light blonde, for example just after bleaching, the resulting Cetol color has kind of an orangish tint that many of the anti-Cetol crowd disparage. Teak with more of a lightly-toasted brown color gives much better results. I was pleasantly suprised how good it looked. Teak that is gray will result in a morbidly dark gray post-Cetol look. You definitely don't want that. I would suggest that for any bare gray teak, you first clean it with a commercial teak cleaner or with a mixture of detergent and bleach, and then let it dry and also let it "age" until it gets a nice toasty brown---not too dark---and then Cetol it. Good luck.

Robert
s/v Zephyr CD28 #230

demers@sgi.com

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

I agree with Larry, if you need to, a little stain will match it perfectly. I have used standard Cherry stain, particularly on a toe rail that looked too many shades to light. Worked great with all the attributes Larry describes.... Oh, and the stain I use on the white oak rub rails on "Puff" the Magic dingy to make it look like teak.....yep, it is Cherry stain.......! !

D. Stump
Hanalei

[Tom Rockaway]

So you are telling me that between bleaching and Cetol-ing my teak,I need to stain it to get the good color. That sounds sacrilegious. I am asking this because I have removed all the teak (toe rails included) and am about to start stripping the old finish.

I agree with Larry, if you need to, a little stain will match it perfectly. I have used standard Cherry stain, particularly on a toe rail that looked too many shades to light. Worked great with all the attributes Larry describes.... Oh, and the stain I use on the white oak rub rails on "Puff" the Magic dingy to make it look like teak.....yep, it is Cherry stain.......! !

D. Stump
Hanalei

srockaway@dcr.net

[Hanalei]

matching a much lighter section of teak with that surrounding it. I don't think you want to stain ALL the teak! The natural finish color will appear with whatever topside finish you put on the wood, Cetol, Armada, Honey Teak or whatever. The cleaning and bleaching as L. DeMers describes is essential though for getting out the little black spots. I only did about a 4' section of rub rail with the stain, and it worked just fine.

D. Stump

[Larry DeMers]

It is essentially, a way to match colors if the Cetol you use is the 'lite' variant, which has little stain in it. I believe that 2 coats of the Cetol 'Marine' would accomplish the same thing. As Dave says, use it to fix areas that had to be bleached to get rid of mildew problems, or were rubbed bare (Shame..install stainless steel rub strakes where this happens!).

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 Lake Superior

matching a much lighter section of teak with that surrounding it. I don't think you want to stain ALL the teak! The natural finish color will appear with whatever topside finish you put on the wood, Cetol, Armada, Honey Teak or whatever. The cleaning and bleaching as L. DeMers describes is essential though for getting out the little black spots. I only did about a 4' section of rub rail with the stain, and it worked just fine.

D. Stump

demers@sgi.com

[Chris Scheck]

I never got the black out of the grain in my teak. It is especially noticeable in the cockpit. I started sanding using 80#, moving up to 120# paper on a huge Milwaukee sander. Then used Teka A & B. Tried Bleach per someone's recommendation on this board. Scrubbed with a brass brush, until someone else told me that it gouges the soft fiber out of the wood, so I switched to a nylon brush. I finally quit (hate to say 'gave up') and put Cetol Satin Light on. Now I have rather orange teak with black streaks in it. It still get compliments, but it's not what I was hoping for. It seems to me that once teak has weathered for 4 or 5 years, it's impossible to get the black out no matter how far down you sand.



cscheck@aol.com

[Chas P]

OK, I'll give this a try and let all know my results,

Chas P
s/v Infinity
Cape Dory 28

No, you can go ahead with a spot treatment of the teak to get rid of the grey, then put on enough cetol lite to match the coloration of the surrounding teak. Follow by 3-4 coats of gloss. Tack rag in the beginning and between coats of gloss.

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

chasp@echobeach.com