Varnishing: Bad or Good Idea?

benjenbav

benjenbav

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Last year I varnished the teak in my cockpit. It all looked very nice and despite concerns that it might prove slippery, it was pretty much ok from that point of view.

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I used Le Tonkinois, which was a joy to apply, but not terribly hardwearing and, frankly, I should have applied several more coats than I did. So the varnish shows considerable signs of degradation after 12 months' exposure to sun, salt water etc.

And so, I was just girding my loins for an extended session of varnishing when another idea struck me: sand back to bare wood (plenty of thickness), apply tcm patented two part cleaning method and then: hello, low maintenance solution.

This all seems too straightforward though, so what have I missed?

Otherwise: a small orbital sander, facemask, gloves, sanding blocks and increasingly fine-grit paper starting maybe with 120 and going to about 400?
 
Some others will know better, but once you apply varnish to bear wood, it soaks in, such that you will have to grind back a long way before you reach a treatable surface such as you mention.
Whilst teak can be varnished, and indeed looks very nice, the maintenance involved is significantly higher than leaving raw.
Sorry to bear bad news, but I think you are now doomed to varnish for evermore.
As for amount of varnish? I would suggest at least 6 to 8 coats first off with annual top ups of rub down and 1 or 2. Less if the cockpit is covered most of the time.
You did ask!!
 
Thanks. I probably wouldn't have varnished at all if it hadn't been varnished before. When I was prepping it last year it was pretty easy to get the old stuff off.

I'm not too worried if I have to keep on varnishing but quite fancied a different look for 2009. I will probably try a sanding back a limited area - maybe one of the locker tops - and see what happens.
 
I think you'll be OK. Being an Aqua Star I expect there's a good thickness of teak there, so even if you have to sand a mm off, you'll still be fine, and as long as you don't varnish it again, it's a once only event.

If it was my boat, that's what i'd do.
 
Thanks. BTW I hope the sea trial on the Windy goes well. I think that's a great choice given your criteria.
 
Yup, if that were mine I'd sand it all off, even if removing 1mm of teak. If you go down that far the teak will look fantastic. Then I'd leave it bare. Varnish on the doors to the saloon of course!

I'm no expert but the pros seem to use disc sanders rather than belt or orbital. With a sort of 6-8inch dia disc, quite low rpm. All the superyacht deck refreshers do, at any rate. I think would be worth buying one, and starting off with some 60 or 80 ish grit for the first attack
 
D'oh, I meant disc not orbital. Was just thinking of something that went round and round - whilst doing two other things at the same time - it's a bit like Emerson Lake and Palmer sometimes when I'm in the groove /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Glad you said that about the doors cos I've just varnished them and I was quite pleased with the result.Anyway, not teak and would need something to protect them and, as I said, I'm not doing them again!
 
So, duly prepared, I set off.

Before I started:

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12 hours' work with the disc sander later:

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Quite pleased!
 
Thanks all. Glad I invested in a face mask - It was quite dusty! I have kept about 250g of teak dust for odd bits of filling.
 
Wow that's fantastic BJB. Really looks the biz.

There are of course differing views on the let-it-go-silver thing but I'd say dont. Keep it the straw brown colour, with 2 part now and again, a la tcm's instructions and all that

Now, I've heard of people who "save string". But "saving dust" is a whole new level. you really ought to get out more :-) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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