Teak & Varnish or other finish

[superheat6k]

So assuming a boat has extensive external teak that the builder decided to finish with glossy varnish and said varnish regularly fails especially near any form of surface opening or fitting, screw head, etc, what are the options to consider to provide a long term decent finish that will not fail too quickly (or ever !).

I am thinking of ...

Deks Olye D1 + D2 (~ 6 - 10 coats D2 after a through soaking with D1)

Semco clear (NB non glossy)( 2 coats then re-apply every 6 months)

Teak oil (apply every 3 months)

Epifanes (applied initial 6 coats very very thin to get it into the wood with ~ gradual build up in reduced dilutions to ~12 coats in total, re-coat any damage every 12 months, but hopefully will not just lift away)

Other Swedish wood oil

Polyurethane

Something else.

Also what is the best way to strip off an entire coat that has partially failed - mostly small failures but up to 50% in places. One area is ~ 1.2m x 3m. I prefer to avoid heat, but might not have a choice.

Thanks.

 

[robmcg]

International Woodskin
Osmo Oil
Tropical Teak Oil and Sealer (Starbrite)
Teak Wonder

 

[[70521]]

I use Le Tonkinos for everything. In my experience Woodskin evaporates into thin air in less than a season.

 

[Tranona]

I use Le Tonkinos for everything. In my experience Woodskin evaporates into thin air in less than a season.

Much of this Woodskin was well over 10 years old, and some not even touched up. Horizontal surfaces typically needed a refresher coat every 3 or 4 years. Don't know what you did wrong but the failure is unlikely to be with the product!

 

[burgundyben]

I had great success with D2, big advantage is rubbing it on with a cloth, so easy to touch up.

 

[superheat6k]

I had great success with D2, big advantage is rubbing it on with a cloth, so easy to touch up.

That's interesting. I have had great success with D1 / D2 in the past, but ever used in on teak.

I will look at the others suggested, but got to buy the boat first !

 

[Rappey]

Iv

. In my experience Woodskin evaporates into thin air in less than a season

I've used it extensively in the past on hardwoods and it lasted a few years but then it comes off on horizontal surfaces and looks terrible, even worse on teak. I'm not sure I would ever use it again.
It is said that bare teak is the best finish with once a year teak cleaner .

 

[westernman]

I use Le Tonkinos for everything. In my experience Woodskin evaporates into thin air in less than a season.

Le Tonkinois makes even my cack-handed varnishing look much better than it deserves to look.
It lasts as well as anything else we tried, and wears out rather than peels off in sheets as the fancy two pack stuff does.
And just slopping on another coat with minimal preparation gives good results.

 

[R.Ems]

Cetol Filter 7, similar to Woodskin, but a wider range of tints. Easy to touch up invisibly, but it doesn't often need it.

 

[[70521]]

Much of this Woodskin was well over 10 years old, and some not even touched up. Horizontal surfaces typically needed a refresher coat every 3 or 4 years. Don't know what you did wrong but the failure is unlikely to be with the product!

I had heard good things about Woodskin on here and was extremely disappointed with the results. Not had any problems with 'Le Tonk' and will not change back.

 

[Hacker]

That's interesting. I have had great success with D1 / D2 in the past, but ever used in on teak.

I will look at the others suggested, but got to buy the boat first !

We’ve just refreshed the Sitka spruce mast and teak combings and toe rails on a 100 yr old Truro Oyster dredger. All rubbed back to bare wood and treated with D1 to saturation level. Will finish with D2 once finally installed. So far it looks good on both woods.

 

[Concerto]

I use Le Tonkinoise and love it. It is a traditional oil based varnish and the initial coats soak into the wood, where as polyurethane varnish sticks to the surface. The difference is if the polyurethane has micro cracks at any joint with another surface or fitting, water can get underneath the varnish and turns the wood black. Le Tonkinoise is not as hard as polyurethane but needs more more coats that are very easy to apply. If Le Tonkinoise gets damaged in any way it is very easy to touch up. It also needs a couple of extra coats every couple of years to keep it looking great.

 

[robmcg]

I had heard good things about Woodskin on here and was extremely disappointed with the results. Not had any problems with 'Le Tonk' and will not change back.

On my first use of Woodskin, the results were not impressive. It really needs 5+ coats to achieve a durable finish. Since putting on 5+ coats, I have had few problems. A quick refresh every three years or so seems to keep it alive.

 

[Tranona]

So assuming a boat has extensive external teak that the builder decided to finish with glossy varnish and said varnish regularly fails especially near any form of surface opening or fitting, screw head, etc, what are the options to consider to provide a long term decent finish that will not fail too quickly (or ever !).

I am thinking of ...

Deks Olye D1 + D2 (~ 6 - 10 coats D2 after a through soaking with D1)

Semco clear (NB non glossy)( 2 coats then re-apply every 6 months)

Teak oil (apply every 3 months)

Epifanes (applied initial 6 coats very very thin to get it into the wood with ~ gradual build up in reduced dilutions to ~12 coats in total, re-coat any damage every 12 months, but hopefully will not just lift away)

Other Swedish wood oil

Polyurethane

Something else.

Also what is the best way to strip off an entire coat that has partially failed - mostly small failures but up to 50% in places. One area is ~ 1.2m x 3m. I prefer to avoid heat, but might not have a choice.

Thanks.

My tuppence worth. It depends on your expectations. If you view the teak as key to the look if the boat and are prepared to put in the work then conventional varnish has a lot going for it in terms of aesthetics but less so in terms of protection because of its short life and regular remedial work. If however your objective is to provide long term protection and low maintenance and are prepared to accept a sheen rather than high gloss finish then a porous woodstain as used in the building industry is the way to go. In my view the best on the market at the moment is 2 part Sikkens HLS/No7. The mast in the photo in post#4 is finished this way and I would be disappointed if it needed more than a refresher coat in the next 10 years. The same mast was finished in an earlier Sikkens 2 part product and after 15 years and one refresher it had only broken down on one side that had been exposed to the south in a mast rack for 8 years..

I have used 2 part systems for close on 40 years and barge boards on the north side of my house have not been refinished since they were coated in the mid 1980s. My front door is not too exposed and is looking a bit ratty after 25 years. One of my sheds is also from the 1980s and has had only one recoat in that time. Last year I replaced the barge boards on the front of the house with softwood finished in HLS/No7 and I know it will outlast me.

Although I shall continue to use Woodskin on my GH this is because there is really only the rub rails and toerails which are mismatched teak that will never look good varnished so the pragmatic thing to do is just keep them protected. If, however I had a boat with a lot of good teak that was a feature of the boat I would have no hesitation in taking it back to bare wood and go the 2 part route. Certainly the trawler type yachts you were looking at would justify this approach. The doors, window frames, bulwark cappings guard rails etc would look great with this sort of finish and not require constant maintenance.

 

[ashtead]

Semco if you don’t have too much wood unless you have a crew of course. I guess it depends on how much time you have but we do our cockpit capping sand toe rail each year cleaning down with washing/powdered bleach mix before reapplying 2 coats.

 

[harvey38]

Watching with interest as I have a new, untreated, fold out teak table with fiddles, not looking to varnish it, is there a decent oil to use?

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Much of this Woodskin was well over 10 years old, and some not even touched up. Horizontal surfaces typically needed a refresher coat every 3 or 4 years. Don't know what you did wrong but the failure is unlikely to beView attachment 135020 with the product!

Pretty.

 

[Stemar]

Another vote for le Tonkinois if a varnished finish is what you want. On its own, it's a high gloss, but you can get a matting agent to give any finish from matt to shiny

 

[westernman]

Another vote for le Tonkinois if a varnished finish is what you want. On its own, it's a high gloss, but you can get a matting agent to give any finish from matt to shiny

And it smells as if it was edible. Not that I have ever tried.

 

[Tranona]

Watching with interest as I have a new, untreated, fold out teak table with fiddles, not looking to varnish it, is there a decent oil to use?

If you have a cover for it then teak oil is worth considering. I did this on my Bavaria and it was OK for about 5 years with an annual top up, but after that I went for Woodskin, but not sure it was a good idea as it marked easily.