Exterior woodwork oil or varnish?

M

MarAzul

Member
Joined
22 Dec 2007
Messages
38
Location
Devon
Visit site
Having just read under 'Brazillian Mahogany' from Moonie1. That great tip about a wood reviver recipy, made me think about my forcomming project on my Northney. I have teak toe rails, coaming cappings and hatch garage etc all of which are in need of some serious TLC. Having been previously varnished, most of which is now worn away, my dilema is do I revarnish or oil. I have had experiences of oil blacking and not much experience of varnishing. I think my preference is oil for easy of maintainence but which oil. If oil is not a good option which varnish?
 
Varnish with Sikkens Natural satin varnish - just like oil, it's easy to apply and touch up even in poor weather. and looks good on teak, iroko and mahogany. In fact a godsend!
 
Oil-hopeless !
You need to build up a layer, to stabilise the timber and moisture content, and protect the timber from the UV. Oil cannot do this.
You can leave teak grabrails and trim bare, but mahogany needs protecting.
 
I have to agree with Seanick, oil on the whole is hopeless! the wood goes black in no time.
Dek oljes is a part 1 oil and part 2 varnish system. details here which was always well regarded however it takes forever to apply.
 
I had a conversation with Ronseal about this.

My mast has now been treated with Ronseal Garden Furniture Stain and all external hardwood has been treated with Ronseal Garden Furniture Oil.

It's been on for a year now and looks good.

No more varnish for me - what a relief.
 
Used Deks Olje on the teak trim on my boat: Now a year and a seasons use later it looks as good as the day day I applied it.

'Day'? What am I saying? it took 53 coats - at least thats what it felt like! Going round everything every fifteen minutes all day with yet another coat of the No1 compound, which was just being sucked up by the timber as though it was a sponge! The No2 treatment was like ordinary varnishing though and pretty straightforward.

No regrets so far - well worth it!
 
You could also consider 'Ceetol' made by Sikkens - it seems to be somewhere in between an oil and a varnish, and in the tropics it lasts considerably longer than varnish.
We have very little external woodwork, but the few bits that we have are treated to a dose of Ceetol occasionally (at this rate about every 2 years or so), and it seems to hold up well.
 
Suggest your choice should give some consideration to how you store over the winter. If you have to store outside in the frost, oiled teak will be your best option. Scrubbed teak goes a lovely white colour when regularly dowsed with salt water - but quite quickly goes black in fresh. In this part of the world, what falls out of the sky still qualifies as fresh water. I agree with a previous poster over mahogany - I wouldn't even try to oil mahogany. Old Frank
 
I am a convert to Le Tonkenois from Deks having found the No 1 didn't penetrate as much as expected, despite multiple coats which appeared to soak in. So where did it go?
A light sanding would take the bleached wood back to red with no evidence of any penetration.
Le T maintains the colour well and over-coats well. The main advantage is that any knocks or chaff can be touched up without having to go right back to bare wood.
 
There is also Burgess Hydrosol and Topgloss
www.woodsealer.co.uk/

I used this for a couple of seasons outside and now have gone to Weathershield varnish. Burgess is by far the easiest method of protecting the wood and looking good, but, it (topgloss) has to be done every year at least once. The bonus of this is it dries in approx 30 mins 6 coats of topgloss min to start with and then as already stated one a year!

I still use it on the wood inside but wish I had stayed with it for exterior as well. I took advice on varnish being the best........ which it is, but, it takes for ever.

Tom
 
I'm with Auntybrett. I use out door furniture oil. Any of the modern brands will do. All my interior woodwork, deck stuff is coated with it. Just slop it on till it will take no more. 12 months time, slop on another coat.
 
I use boiled linseed oil with cuprinol - or something similar. It's wonderful, cheap, and so easy to apply. Needs a coat slapped on with no prep every few months. Use it everywhere except on my top blocks which I can't get to very easily, where I've used Sikkens cetol marine.
 
I experimented last year with Varnol which is another oil mix as I was looking for easy maintenance. I used it on mahogany bulwarks and marine ply cabin sides. It did a fair job on the ply but was totally useless on the mahogany as even though I applied about a dozen coats it disappeared in about a fortnight and had to be constantly redone. On the ply I had to go over it twice in the season with the worst side being that most exposed to UV on the mooring.

Internally Varnol was satisfactory but then again just about anything would be.

I also used various varnishes on different parts and have now given up experimenting and am using LeTonk for everything except the spars where I am still using Epifanes as I still have a big can of it, when that's gone it will be all LeTonk.
 
I stripped back and varnished Roach with Aemme Colori's Skippers range. This is a modern high build up two-pack varnish that looks a treat. As used on Gondola's and Riva Power boats. It requires a multiple build up of maybe 18-15 coats to be really effective, but at a third cheaper than Coelan - I recommend it if you want to consider lowering yearly maintenance!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top