Mahogany problems

[mriley]

Some patches of mahogany on my upper deck have become bleached, I guess where the varnish has deteriorated - other areas of the same pieces of wood have the natural deep colour still. Any suggestions how I can restore the warm glow to the bleached parts, and make it look evenly deep and natural again. I don't know if staining is the answer, as it might look patchy, and the pores of the wood are presumably sealed with varnish so it might not even be possible to apply stain.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Mike Riley

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[tillergirl]

I fear that the only way to restore an even finish is to strip off all the remaining varnish and then 'sand' all of the surface until a uniform unvarnished colour is achieved. You can test for colour match between the previously bleached and previously ok bits by cleaning the surface with white spirit which will give an indication of how it will begin to look revarnished.

I tend to think that mahogany is less tricky to get back to a uniform colour than say iroko. You could try just sanding the bleached bits lightly until the natural redness shows up. Clean with white spirit will give you an indication of colour match and you might get it matching ok. In a sense you have nothing to lose since you could always revert to para 1 if this is not successful.

I would avoid trying a stain remedy for the bleached bits only - I think you will find it very difficult to match.

On a positive note I had the surface of the varnish fail on some mahogany and not having time nor inclination to do para 1, I rubbed back (the timber was not bleached) to a sound surface for revarnishing, then varnished. Result for year one a horrid colour mismatch. After a year in the sun, the mismatch has faded completely. On this vast amount of evidence I conclude that the deepest hue suffers the most bleaching and the speed gradually reduces (we are talking about a coated surface here) - from which you may conclude that I am a bit miffed at the UV fading that has taken place even though the varnish surface has not failed. And this is 2 pot varnish which I admit is as tough as old boots but otherwise rather unlovely.

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[pampas]

Have suffered the same problem in the past, found the best results for a longer life is Not to thin the first coat by much more than one table spoon of white spirit to 2.5 ltr of varnish, I use srewfix own brand and find it to be one of the hardest mechanical wearing of all conventional varishes that I have ever used (Applied to rubbed down bare wood).try it you will be surprised.

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