Finishing teak?

[BHOFM]

I have never worked with teak. I have a lot of salavage
pieces I am going to use on my boat. It is dark and ugly
but light sanding really make it look nice.

I have heard that normal finishes don't do well on teak.

What is the best thing to put on it to keep it nice? Most
of my parts are small trim stuff. Dead eyes, cleats and
I am going to make blocks with it.

[Kaptin-Jer]

You have to decided if you want the teak with a high shine or a satin look. The "brightwork" would be a varnish finish while the satin look would be an oil finish. Each is very different in application techniques. Let us know.

[BHOFM]

I have the tiller done and it is oak and I finished it in
high gloss. I think the rest should be the same?

[rfnk]

I recently restored a Folkboat with all teak coaming, cabin sides etc. The advice I was given was to paint it all with a couple of coats of neat epoxy resin then varnish (poly whatever) over that. The advantage of this is that you are sanding back into resin rather than teak each time you re-varnish, and you are also creating a nice smooth base for the varnish. The disadvantage is that any blisters from neglect or impact have to be sanded out and recoated with resin prior to varnishing each time, but this is really not too hard. I'm very happy with the result (and our boat has LOTS (too much) of brightwork.

Having said that, I'd be reluctant to varnish cleats or any areas that are subject to foot traffic, wear from ropes etc. as the varnish and resin wear off very quickly anyway. Bare teak looks good - varnished cleats look silly - maybe a bit of oil to keep a bit of colour might be wise?

[firth_andrew007]

its really what kind of finish you want at the end of the day 5 coats of vanish sanding with 240grit in between coats very lightly will give you a nice finish to low traffic areas high traffic i would just do i final sand with 120grit and use teak oil and re-apply after 3 months then 6 months then every year should keep it fresh is amazing what a light sand will do to teak usually only the first 1/2 mm is effected by weather or traffic

[BHOFM]

Oil and fine steel wool? What kind of oil?
Low fat?

[PAR]

The least expensive coating is natural oils. These are typically tung and linseed. Linseeds will darken the teak with age, but tung will not. These oil finishes don't shine very much, but kind of have a dull "glow" when fresh, which quickly wears off in a week or so. They also need to be applied several times a year to keep the coating in good order. It's easy to apply, just wipe a dampened rag over the areas, clean up excess and that's it. Do this every other month and you'll look great all year long.

The harder finishes such as varnish, shellac and polyurethane last a lot longer then natural oils, but they cost a lot more and are more difficult to apply. You can have a mirror like finish with some brands, but applying these, let alone keeping up with them is a career in itself.

All clear finishes on wood are difficult to live with. The varnishes are hard to apply well, but last a couple of years in most places. The oils are easy to apply, but you're doing it all the time.

Epoxy coating doesn't help any of the the up keep issues and it means your epoxy base coats also have to be applied with care or it'll show through the finish coats.

The choice is a personal one for most of us. The polyurethanes offer fast drying time, no sanding between coats on some brands, but there's hell to pay if you get damage to the coating. Varnishes are easily repaired if you get at it soon enough, but take a long time to dry between coats, which permits every bug in the area to come over and go swimming in your fresh handy work. The oils don't shine and are very easy to keep up with, but you do it so often.

Never use steel wool on a boat. It will quickly shed some of it's wool and these bits of steel will get into everything and rust. You'll never pick up all these little buggers and rust stains from hell is the return you'll get.

Pick your poison.

[BHOFM]

OK! I have it figured out:

If you want beauty, you have to pay!

If you want a little less beauty, you have to pay!

Teak is the "wife" of the wood groups!

High maintenance!

I am going to see what oils are at the store.

What kind of rags should I use? Unbleached Egypten
cotton harvested by a virgin by the light of a full moon.
Spun by a holy man. woven by a high princesses?

Or is there something a little cheaper?:P :P :P

[PAR]

Naaaa, I just use old underwear man . . .

[BHOFM]

Naaaa, I just use old underwear man . . .

I got some Watco teak oil at Lowes. It looks good. Just
wipe on, wait, wipe off. Nice soft look.

BUT,, I got a rash when I put my underwear back on??

[PAR]

Let the oil soaked underwear dry first, before putting them back on . . .

[lazeyjack]

this is my table built of old flloor joists, 17 coats boiled oil , let soak in over night each coat, thin first 50/50 turps, can put scolding plates on it, no,marks, cheap, use linseed if you cant find boiled rubbed it in with old sack, then finished bees wax

[BHOFM]

Nice, I made my study furniture from the cheapest lumber
I could find and stained it with linseed oil and tea, heated
for an hour or so.

Ten coats or so.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/4038/dscf0675dt4.jpg

The truth; I used one of my wifes old make up brushes to apply the teak
oil, sable, soft. An old T-shirt to rub it off.

[bntii]

I have been using the Epiphanes 'Woodfinish' products and getting good service. The product allows 72 hours of re-coat time with out sanding so I usually go five coats or so sand out- then repeat till I have the coats I need. The Epiphanes products are a good compromise of flex/hardness so they wear well and don't tent to chip in service. Good color and can be patched fine during the season if needed. I finish with Epiphanes high gloss for the last few coats. This is a full out varnish.

edit- varnish on blocks is not for the faint of heart, maybe soak the shells in something... par should know the traditional approach. I have a few on my boat and they go gray as I don't have the patience to keep them in good form with varnish.

[Kaptin-Jer]

Which ever method you use , oil or varnish, it is a multi level repetition of application, and sanding. For the exterior bright-work I have found that the inexpensive Minwax varnish that you can buy at Walmart works great. It will flow on in hot sunlight, you can apply and sand 2 coats in a day, and the finish will last almost as long as the expensive stuff. I feel that if you are going to re-coat in 6 months with the expensive stuff, use the cheaper varnish and re-coat in 5 months.

[grady]

Hi over the years I have refinished the teak on the boat many times, mostly with oils, look good quick, but don't last too long exposed to the weather (about one season, two if your lucky).

So this year, because of a serious investment on a complete restoration, I thought I would varnish, at least on the helm pieces There under the protection of a hardtop.

Here are samples, about 7 coats of clear high gloss

[Kaptin-Jer]

[QUOTE=BHOFM;228961
The truth; I used one of my wifes old make up brushes to apply the teak
oil, sable, soft. An old T-shirt to rub it off.[/QUOTE]

One of my wives was cool with letting me use her stuff too. The other one got a little upset. I guess I should have asked her to take off the t shirt before I tried to rub down the oil with it.:P

[BHOFM]

One of my wives was cool with letting me use her stuff too. The other one got a little upset. I guess I should have asked her to take off the t shirt before I tried to rub down the oil with it.:P


Women are funny, You buy them a house, buy them cloths,
buy them food, tell them you love them. Turn your back for
one minute and they chew through the ropes and run off.

[alan white]

I have found that success with oil finishes has a lot to do with how finely the wood has been sanded. I've done a lot of oiling of wood gunstocks, furniture, and cabinetry and when prepping the wood, I've gone as far as 600 grit paper (which gets the wood to reflect light like a mirror), and then and only then oiled to the point of saturation.
What happens is the wood shines a lot more than it would if only sanded to 180 grit.
Unlike clear finishes such as polyurethane or varnish, oil depends entirely upon the shine produced in the wood before it gets coated.
Over time, if the wood is kept oiled, it develops a beautiful patina.
Not for abovedecks necessarily, but great for interior furnishings. Once correctly prepared, the oiling (especially tung oil) protects better than any other coating and should never require wooding.
You do it once, and simply renew the oil on a regular basis.

Alan

[Kaptin-Jer]

Thanks Alan,
That is good advice. I have never been successful with oil. That is why everything on my boat is bright. I want to oil the teak seats that are set up like decking and the handrails and cockpit grating. Would you still recommend the same pre application work? Which oil, or just stick with tung? 6-7 coats?

[alan white]

Especially with hardwood, the sheen before oiling is what creates the shine after oiling.
That said, my experience is limited to interior wood, as I described.
Products like Deks Olje (a two stage process, I think) are formulated for dealing with sun, rain, and salt air, but my experience has been with varnish outdoors on boats. This is primarily because I do so much painting relative to brightwork, so I can choose a finish for looks even if it is a bit more work.
Oil is oil, of course, so I'd experiment and compare a surface sanded to a high degree and another only sanded top maybe #180. My guess is you'll be surprised to find that oil can look pretty good when the wood is finely sanded.

[Swiftlady]

Our lovely "Swift" is almost entirely teak and we found varnish very unsatisfactory - it peels easily because teak is so oily.
in our mega restoration job now were stripping right back and going for oils
would support PAR's advice post #7

[BHOFM]

Par beat me severely when I mentioned steel wool, I failed
to say, it was to be used in the shop during construction
and that it was stainless steel wool!

[PAR]

Even stainless steel wool will rust, use bronze or one of the polymer variety.

You can get varnish and polyurethane to stay stuck to teak, but it's the prep (isn't it always) that determines you're likelihood of success.

The varnish has to get a grip on the wood, which it can't if the natural oils are still there and you've not insured the varnish can penetrate. I have a "special" blend of particularly nasty chemicals that I use to remove the oils, just before varnishing teak. Then the varnish goes on thinned and hot (to lower viscosity). If you can heat the wood, then permit cooling, even better, just like trying to eliminate out gassing in epoxy work on raw wood.

With a few hot thin coats of varnish, which progressively decrease the solvent percentage, you now have "keyed" into the wood with the varnish and if the wood was clean and oil free, you'll get good durability results.

It's got to go down thin, without temptation to cheat the "build" coats with a few thick layers. The build or bulking coats are the basis for the varnish job. This is what saves your future efforts, so you can't skimp here. Once sufficient film thickness is bulked up, the handful of finish coats top off the job. These are the sacrificial coats and you'll remove these over and over, during the life of the bright work.

[Crag Cay.]

I do completely the opposite (in the de-oiling stakes but agree with the thin layers) and have had a lot of success with keeping varnish on teak in place, even in the tropics. I don't fight the oil, I go with it. I start with Deks Olje #1 and then several coats of #2 before starting with a traditional oil based 'yacht varnish'. (Whatever name International uses in the various parts of the world).

However there are lots of other factors that determine whether varnishing will be a success. I've seen people blame 'the oily wood' when in fact it's just a shit varnish job. Their work wouldn't have stayed in place on a wool blanket.

[lazeyjack]

I do completely the opposite (in the de-oiling stakes but agree with the thin layers) and have had a lot of success with keeping varnish on teak in place, even in the tropics. I don't fight the oil, I go with it. I start with Deks Olje #1 and then several coats of #2 before starting with a traditional oil based 'yacht varnish'. (Whatever name International uses in the various parts of the world).

However there are lots of other factors that determine whether varnishing will be a success. I've seen people blame 'the oily wood' when in fact it's just a shit varnish job. Their work wouldn't have stayed in place on a wool blanket.

what works in the UV down here will work anywhere, I use the Ole, ,