Internation Woodskin - one year on feedback

[viva]

Following the positive reports on Woodskin I applied this to the woodwork on my boat last July. Here is some feedback on performance after 1 year. The wood I treated was copings, rubbing strakes, cockpit seats, handrails and gunwhales - all teak. For the mast and spars I used Le Tonkinois. The wood was all sanded back to new wood washed, dried and then wiped down with white spirit. I then applied 3 coats over 3 or 4 days, which is the minimum required. My plan was to apply an initial 3 coats and then top up this summer with some more. The effect when completed was very pleasing. Now one year on there are patches that need treatment. Even the cockpit which was under a cover from October until April has bare patches. Maybe the specified minimum 3 coats are insufficient. I have to say I am disappointed and expected better

 

[Mr Boats]

Last September I applied one coat of Ronseal 5year Wood Stain to one washboard as an experiment to see how it stood up to the winter weather. With only one coat, not the recommended three, it is showing no sign of failure yet. A job now for quiet moment is to apply the other two coats and do the other washboard. I must add that the boat is on a swinger with no winter cover.

 

[Nicholas123]

Did my main hatch & washboards with "teak oil" last year & so far no signs of peeling flaking & the like which is my experience with wood stain.(though i did have it once last as long as two years).Should'nt be too hard to give them a rub down with white spirit & another coat this year :encouragement:

 

[AKR]

A couple of years ago after years of using International Schooner varnish I thought I would try Woodskin, I treated the rubbing strakes (mahogany), main hatch (12mm ply) and grab rails (mahogany), having first rubbed them down to bare wood and cleaned them with white spirit, I only applied two coats and this year I just lightly rubbed them down and put on another coat plus two coats on my new (solid oak) tiller, so far I have had no problems with lifting, fading or bare patches so next year I will do the cockpit seats and see how long they last, far less hassle than varnish and thus far longer lasting.
Tony

 

[Tim Good]

Just resurrecting this thread as I'm curious if anyone else has used woodskin as an alternative to varnish and has much success?

 

[Tranona]

Yes. It (and its predecessor Cetol) was one of the best performers in the long term tests of bright finishes reported in PBO and Classic Boat regularly over the last 10 years or so.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Just resurrecting this thread as I'm curious if anyone else has used woodskin as an alternative to varnish and has much success?

I tried it last year on my capping rail and hand rails, all teak. It went on easily, looked great and stayed nice all summer. By this spring it was repulsive. Some of it looks as it did before but much of it has turned yellow where it has lifted off the wood. I have done a quick patch-up but will have to remove the lot in due course.

Never again.

 

[Tim Good]

I tried it last year on my capping rail and hand rails, all teak. It went on easily, looked great and stayed nice all summer. By this spring it was repulsive. Some of it looks as it did before but much of it has turned yellow where it has lifted off the wood. I have done a quick patch-up but will have to remove the lot in due course.

Never again.

So what are you going to go with now? I have an Iroko rail and the varnish is in bad shape with staining. I ideally want use something that isn't going to mean masses of work every year or two. Would a standard oil be ok or am I going to need to protection given by a full varnish?

It was originally done with Coelan about 4 years ago at great cost and effort.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Rupert Hare in PBO mag did some long-term tests and found it smart and durable. Perhaps you didn't prep correctly.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

.... I have an Iroko rail ..... Would a standard oil be ok ....

The gunwale on a yacht I sailed on regularly was teak, we treated it with Deks Olje. For the 3 years I was associated with this yacht we only rubbed the oil in with a rag from time to time and the gunwale looked great the whole time and lasted well. Now, some claim that it gets sticky and attracted dirt but I never found that's was the case. When rubbed in it was possible to over treat such that the oil did not soak in but that was easily rubbed off with the rag.

On my own Rival I clean my teak gunwale with a proprietary teak cleaner and used Internationals teak oil. It looked great and worked well. However, this is a routine job and it has to be applied regularly, say a monthly wipe otherwise the oil just gets absorbed or evaporates away completely, whatever. My boat has been laid up for a year an half and it has not seen a drop of teak oil and the gunwale is back to a dry, bare teak again.

So, Deks Olje works well but it is a regular job.

 

[JumbleDuck]

So what are you going to go with now? I have an Iroko rail and the varnish is in bad shape with staining. I ideally want use something that isn't going to mean masses of work every year or two. Would a standard oil be ok or am I going to need to protection given by a full varnish?

I think I'll leave it bare and let it go grey. I was suckered in by the woodskin propaganda, but am now reverting to my previous belief: nothing works on teak, so don't bother trying.

 

[vyv_cox]

I think I'll leave it bare and let it go grey. I was suckered in by the woodskin propaganda, but am now reverting to my previous belief: nothing works on teak, so don't bother trying.

That's what I did around ten years ago in the Med. It was nice not to have to do any work on our toerails and handrails but after that time the wood is almost destroyed. So much of the section of the timber has eroded away tha the teak plugs over the fixing screws are popping out. Last year I applied three coats of Woodskin, cannot claim perfect results but it is a lot better than varnish or Deks Olje.

 

[Nicholas123]

Did my main hatch & washboards with "teak oil" last year & so far no signs of peeling flaking & the like which is my experience with wood stain.(though i did have it once last as long as two years).Should'nt be too hard to give them a rub down with white spirit & another coat this year :encouragement:

Update:The wood turned black just as Tronona said it would. Now back to doing the main hatch with woodstain that claims to last five years & my wash boards & tiller with Danish oil.
Might next time just try snake oil.It will probably turn out less perplexing than the usual hype & I'll feel like less of a fool

 

[JumbleDuck]

Update:The wood turned black just as Tronona said it would. Now back to doing the main hatch with woodstain that claims to last five years & my wash boards & tiller with Danish oil.
Might next time just try snake oil.It will probably turn out less perplexing than the usual hype & I'll feel like less of a fool

My boat was used to test a wide range of teak finishes some years ago. I can say with some confidence that none of them worked. I have now added woodskin to the list ...

 

[Tim Good]

Does anyone have experience with leaving Iroko bare? Where the varnish or plugs have lets some water in, it has gone dark / black beneath. Is that just water rotting as it can't dry or is that just what Iroko does if untreated?

 

[Deleted member 36384]

So why did my teak cap over the gunwale not go black with Deks Olje applied regularly over years, Scottish weather, sailed regularly? I am not bullshitting about this, the teak bulwark looked great, no sanding, no preparation, no wear, no ridges, no black. It could very well have been applied from new, I don't know. When the teak began to fade from the teak colour towards the silver, I would get the oil out and run around the cap. We never applied it to handrails, they remained plain teak.

 

[Tranona]

So why did my teak cap over the gunwale not go black with Deks Olje applied regularly over years, Scottish weather, sailed regularly?

Probably because that stuff just evaporates and has none of the oils that "teak oil" has in it. Looks good if you continually top it up, but I put a whole tin into my mast a few years ago and then finished off with D2. One of the major disappointments of my boating life as it only lasted a year and as soon as the film broke it fell off in lumps and there was no sign of the D1 having penetrated. don't forget also you live in a low temperature, high humidity, clean air part of the world. Heat, UV, and atmospheric pollution are all killers of just about any bright finish, and the woodstains such Woodskin are arguably the best to withstand these conditions - as Richard Hare's comprehensive tests referred to above showed.

 

[vyv_cox]

I

Probably because that stuff just evaporates and has none of the oils that "teak oil" has in it. Looks good if you continually top it up, but I put a whole tin into my mast a few years ago and then finished off with D2. One of the major disappointments of my boating life as it only lasted a year and as soon as the film broke it fell off in lumps and there was no sign of the D1 having penetrated.

Very similar to my experience. However, I treated my toe rails and hand rails, that had previously been varnished, and a piece of new teak that is my outboard stowing bracket. The treatment of the rails was very disappointing, at the end of only one season it was looking very tatty, which I attributed to low or no pentration into the previously finished wood. However, the outboard bracket remained in very good condition for several years, although I have never continued with its treatment.

 

[pvb]

Many years ago, I used Deks Olje to treat the cockpit "chart tables" in my Hallberg-Rassy 352. Looked good for a few months only. In the end, I stripped them back to bare teak and then just treated them several times a year with Boracol (same as the deck, toerail, handrails and cockpit seats). This is the ultimate low-maintenance treatment for teak. As JumbleDuck said, no coatings really work.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As JumbleDuck said, no coatings really work.

Q. How do you strip teak?
A. Wait.