Can you use varnish on marine use teak???

[mbaybut]

I was told the other day that only an oil finish would be correct for teak on boats. Is this true?? Mikey

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Correct according to tradition? Perhaps.

Correct as it is the only way? The people at Sikkens, makers of Cetol Marine finish will disagree with that. For less pigmentation of the finish go with Marine Light. Ed [e-mail]

[Dustmaker]

Oil finish.. the only correct thing? Not true!

If you wish to use varnish, be prepared to spend a lot of time maintaining it. Even Marine Varnish (oil based) does not adhere very well to teak.

You can use teak oil (Watco makes an exterior teak oil) and have less maintenance, but it will still require annual work to keep the oiled teak looking good.

Marine supply stores (Boat US, West Marine) sell a product called Cetol. It is a treatment for clean fresh teak that is similar to varnish but requires a heck of a lot less maintenance. I use this on my boat and after the initial 3 coats in the first year, its a matter of using 0000 bronze wool and then applying one more coat each year.

Your final alternative is to do nothing and let the teak turn grey. Teak has so much oil in it and is so weather resistant that you can just leave it alone. We have a garden bench that is 12 years old and the only thing I do is use a fine scotchbrite pad and Simple Green cleaner once a year.

Above all, never use a scrub brush on teak. It will scrub away the soft wood and leave you with extremely rough wood that will gather dirt in the pores created by scrubbing.

Happy sailing

Dustmaker

[J T]

Mon, Jun 28, 2004, 1:32am (EDT+4) [e-mail] claims: I was told the other day that only an oil finish would be correct for teak on boats. Is this true??

Who told you that, an artiste? Or, an interior decorator?

In the Orient, I've seen any number of things made out of teak, including boats, and painted. Of course, over there it's the equivalent of pine, or poplar, here.

Me, as long as you're paying, I'd say put anything on it you damn well pleased. But, based on what you'd probably pay for it, I don't think I'd paint it. However, there are various finishes available labeled for teak, on boats. Your money, your call. Personally, I wouldn't listen long to anybody who's telling me only one thing is "correct" for wood, or much of anything else.

JOAT That the peope have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the state.

- Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776

[BUB 209]

In my boatyard days, I saw an awful lot of teak that had been varnished and was

100% flaked.

[Ron Magen]

Mikey, Define 'correct'.

It's more a factor of FUNCTION. In the days of 'Fighting Sail', one of the sailors almost daily tasks was to 'Holystone' the decks. This was the equivalent of sanding the Teak on a repeated basis. The only 'finish' was to swab daily with seawater. {I won't go into the red paint around the guns, or on the Gundeck}. Bear in mind, that at that time most of the sailors didn't wear shoes, yet had to have a great deal of foot purchase. Hauling on halyards to raise heavy canvas sails/spars, around the capstan, and heaving tackle for guns.

While today this isn't so urgent, and Teak is a LOT harder to get, the same sort of function still has a place. For the handholds on cabin tops, & elsewhere, I would simply keep them clean for MAXIMUM grip. On my small sailboats I initially oil them to saturation. Then, 'as needed'. Good grip, yet some cosmetic protection. I do the same with hardware mounting blocks & backing plates. If you can afford it, or the boat 'came that way', I'd recommend oiling the decks as well.

For those areas of TRIM or 'Brightwork', {'non-handled' parts} I tend toward a SPAR varnish. {Cetol has a number of Pros and Cons}. What ever you use WILL BE 'slippery' when wet. ANY 'clear' finish {varnishes, Cetol, etc.} WILL need periodic 'refreshing' to maintain that 'Bristol Fashion' look. How often depends on degree of care and YOUR environment. As far as 'flaking' goes, the major cause of that is improper or incomplete prep work. {Actually, that same statement goes for a LOT of things !!}. Teak is an 'oily' wood - which is why there are 'complaints' about gluing it, as well as finish problems. A accepted practice when using epoxy is to wipe it down with Acetone, or Lacquer thinner, have it 'flash off', and immediately apply the epoxy. I'd recommend the same thing for the first coat of varnish.

Also, for ANY varnish work - think in terms of at least 4 coats - I typically use 6. Make them thin, this initial ones well diluted, and 'build' the finish. Takes quite a bit of patience, but makes the long-term maintenance easier.

Regards & Good Luck, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop {PS - to me it smacks of sacrilege, but paint {a couple of good coats}is the ideal protective finish. Slippery, but great UV protection.}

[Tom Dacon]

I've been using marine spar varnish on teak for almost thirty years so far, and while it takes a lot of maintenance it suits me. Here's how I do it.

Teak has a lot of natural oil in it, it's true, but this can be handled. Before the first coat on unfinished teak, I wipe the wood down with acetone on a rag to remove the surface oil. When you do this, you shouldn't flood the wood with the acetone because that just brings up more oil from deeper in the wood. Just a wipedown with a rag that's well-moistened with acetone does the job.

As a base coat, I use a clear penetrating epoxy sealer, such as Smith's CPES. It's a two-part epoxy with a watery consistency that's mixed 50-50. I brush it into the wood with a good-quality disposable bristle brush, putting it on wet-on-wet until the wood won't soak up any more. The epoxy has a pretty long pot life, so as the wood begins to take up the epoxy I just put the pot in the shade for ten or fifteen minutes and then go back and put on the next coat. Keep this up until the whole surface of the wood stays shiny.

The next day, I use a hook scraper to scrape off any bristles that came out of the brush and then sand the sealed wood lightly with 150-grit sandpaper. Now it's ready for the first coat of varnish.

Use the best quality marine spar varnish you can find The higher the proportion of ultra-violet inhibitors, the better. If you didn't use a sealer as described above, you'd thin the first coat of varnish with mineral spirits, about 25% or so. If you used a sealer you can put the first coat on full-strength.

Keep putting coats of varnish on until you get up to at least six coats as a bare minimum. Eight is better, ten is probably more than most people have the patience for. It's certainly more than I have the patience for.

Once you have a good buildup, you need to maintain the finish. In a southern climate such as Southern California, you'd re-varnish three times a year. In northern climes such as Washington state, twice a year is probably enough. Once you have a suitably thick build-up of coats, each time you refinish you're trying to sand off just as much varnish as you're going to put back on with fresh coats. For teak on a boat that lives on or near the sea, I start out by scrubbing the varnished wood down with soap and water and rinsing thoroughly to get rid of all dirt and salt. For the recoat, sand out the wood with 150-grit paper, or 180-grit on the corners and rounded surfaces. Clean it carefully and put on two new coats of full-strength varnish. Between these coats, if they're applied on consecutive days, there's no need to sand. I rub the first coat down with a fine 3M abrasive pad to remove any dust that settled, and to dull the finish just enough so that I can tell the difference between the previous coat and the newly-applied second coat. (This procedure applies to the original build-up, as well).

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. The older I get, the less I look forward to it, but I enjoy the finished product as much as I ever did. One of these days I suppose I'll break down and go to paint instead of varnish, but that day hasn't quite come yet.

Tom Dacon

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:32:41 GMT, [e-mail] scribbled:

I just came back from a one-month sailing trip around Vancouver Island. The owner of the sailboat used Teak Oil as his interior finish. He will no longer do so. After doing the dishes the first night out, the table ended up with rings from setting wet glasses on it. The rings are still there.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address