Varnish Brightwork Like a Pro - Part 1

Some time back, we reviewed the current marine varnishes that are available.* Let's now talk about applying that varnish on your new trawler.

If you are a trawler traditionalist like me, a trawler is not a true boat unless there is some exterior bright work (varnished teak) on the boat. But the trend of today's builders is NO teak if at all possible. The contemporary consumer does not want to be troubled with such mundane chores.*

That's too bad as I often hear buyers tells me "if there is any teak to maintain forget it".. But I understand why, they just don't want to invest the time into it to keep it looking beautiful.* To me, the high gloss brightwork give a trawler character.

The key to maintaining bright work is to reapply the finish before it needs it, yes, before. Don't wait until it begins to crack or peel, you have waited too long. But for discussion sake, lets take for granted you are looking at an older trawler you are thinking of buying from me. The owner has let his bright work go and it needs revitalizing. Would it just be best to avoid that boat? No, not at all. Let me show you how to get it looking great.

The first matter we need to consider is whether we need to simply sand it down smooth or completely remove the old finish.

If we need to get the old varnish completely off we need to go to our preferred hardware store and get a heat gun and a 2-3 inch metal putty knife; look in the paint department. This method is far better and quicker than chemicals. Don't even consider of using a vibrating sander! Turn on your heat gun on full power and hold it about 4-5 inches from the surface; with some help from your putty knife the varnish will come off in sheets. Be cautious not to get too close or you will scorch the teak itself. When you have removed the varnish, sand with 120 and 220 sandpaper to get a smooth surface.

Ok, so what do we do if we do not need to take off all of the varnish?I did my yearly maintenance last weekend and here is the rundown. Just so you know, my trawler has 94 feet of teak handrail.

My choice of finish is Sikkens Cetol. It's a product made for teak by the manufactures of Awlgrip . You can look into it out at www.yachtpaint.com.

Shopping List

·Heat gun (if you are removing the old varnish)
·Sandpaper 120/220 grit
·7-day blue painters tape
·Mineral spirits
·Tack rags
·Soap

Step 1 - Clean the Teak

For starters, mix up some soapy water and wash the teak really good. Get the dirt and crud off. Wipe it down and let it dry. Next, very important here, moisten a cloth with mineral spirits and wipe the teak down again. The solvent will remove any silicon or wax that might lift your varnish later on If you sand with these on the wood, you will actually drive the products into the wood

Prep Time - 30 minutes

Step 2

OK, the teak is clean and we need to rough up the surface to assure we get good adhesion.
Next, tape up any adjacent metal to keep varnish away from those areas you do not need varnished. Use blue 7-day painter's tape; it will save you lots of cleaning time later on.

Prep Time - 2 hours

In our next article, well begin the application process.

Don't forget to plug and redrill any loose screw holes, steam any dents, R&R damaged fittings as needed. Also remove those items that you can't varnish around, rebed any item that might be allowing water underneath, remove items such as canvas snaps or other holdowns that are on the varnished surfaces.

If you only have 96 feet of handrail you may be able to meet the above times. My 40' boat has varnished handrail, caprail, every window trimmed in teak, caprail on the flybridge, flybridge seat trim, 2 varnished rubrails with varnish above and below the bronze strip, decorative strips on the fore and aft cabins, name boards and a varnished transom. It takes considerably more time to varnish a fully dressed boat. That being said, I wouldn't take any of my teak off. It is a joy to sit at the dock and watch people walk by bigger, newer, fancier cookie cutter boats, then stop at mine and look at the woodwork.

If you don't enjoy working with varnish, I would advise not to buy a boat with all the brightwork. Or, as Marinetrader says above, buy one with minimal woodwork like he has. It truly is a labor of love. I love to sit out in a quiet anchorage and lay on coats of nice shiny new varnish, then sit back and drink a beer and watch it dry.

A heat gun and paint scraper are valuable tools, especially for large flat surfaces like a transom, but for my money, I wouldn't start a varnish removal project without my trusty 1" Red Devil scraper and a hand file.

http://www.reddevil.com/products.cfm?c=wp&cat=11

When I stripped the varnish from my '69 GB32's handrails, toerails, and transom a couple of years ago, I started with a heat gun and scraper.* Cym Hughes, a veteran wooden boat guy who runs our boat yard, stopped by and showed me the value of the mighty Red Devil.* By keeping the blade sharp with the file, and with a little practice, it's quite easy to "shave" the varnish off with no damage to the wood.* It's a lot faster than heating/scraping, and you don't run the risk of scorching the wood.* The older and nastier the varnish, the better the Red Devil works.

Part one of the secret is keeping the Red Devil's handle nearly parallel to the wood surface while drawing the scraper toward you. ** Part two of the secret is to keep the blade ultra sharp, giving it two or three strokes against the file as soon as you think it's dulling. I think I went through two or three blades during that project.

Ted Hugger
GB32-126 Sequin

you are right thugger, a good sharp scraper ,at the right angle, do a real good job.I did all the cap rail on my eagle and it was fast.


CJ
m/v septembre

Minor dents can be removed by placing a wet cloth over the dent and ironing it with a steam iron. Gun smiths have been refinishing gun stocks for years using this method. I refinished all the stocks of my old shotguns and rifles, scraping the old varnish off with the straight edge* (sharp) of a piece of glass, steaming the dents and sanding in preparation for stain and oil or varnish.

MT,
Please remove your commercial advertising from this non commercial site and if you present other peoples stuff here you need to list credits.

Eric Henning

Sounds like way too much work to me.* Maybe after I retire and need to find stuff to occupy my time.

For now, I'm going to let the current varnish/stain/whatever flake and peel off and the teak can just age gracefully into that nice neutral gray color.* Sort of like me.

My leaky decks are already there!

I let mine flake off too.* I*wipe it down with boiled linseed oil. I don't know if it is good or bad.*I like the look. and it's fast and easy. the way I look at it is oil and water don't mix put enough oil on it it should stick around for a long time.* Longer than I will own the boat. *So that's what*I do. Wood is wood. *Outdoors *it's not furniture. I would rather worry about the systems that float my boat and keeps me safe and on the water

SD

skipperdude wrote:

I let mine flake off too.* I*wipe it down with boiled linseed oil.

Click to expand...

Interesting idea on removing small dents in wood, I'll give a try some day.* As for Linseed oil, I tried that once and found it turned black pretty quickly due to mold or something.* Hopefully, I did something wrong, as it would sure be nice to simply wipe on some oil once in a while.* Does your wood turn black after while?...Arctic Traveller

And remember if you go south , the rule is

" Da Coat De Month ,,MON"

for the yachtie look.

Oh yea, *but I don't care.* As long as it doesn't crack chip and fall off.
So far so good. If the teak gets really bad I will take it off and replace it with UHMW

I started using*th linseed oil*on garden tool handles. keeps them from splitting.

SD*

From what I've heard raw linseed oil is better because it dries slower and penetrates better. Yea , I hear about the black and see it on my cap rail. I'm thinking about going black w some pine tar and turpentine also.

Eric Henning

MT likes Cetol.
Cetol is not varnish, it has pigment in it, like paint, and will never give the sparkle that characterizes varnish.
When I do my varnish, I start with an artist's brush, 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide and soft. I touch up holes in the varnish, which i clean out with a small scraper.
I do not remover the old varnish anywhere that remains properly adhered to the teak. That took years and years to build to the thickness that permits the easy maintenance of a recoat once or at most twice a year.
Once the holes are patched, with as many coats as you need to build the spot up to the level of the rest of the adjoining surface, I sand the whole of the rail or other piece of teak that I am redoing, with fine paper, the fineness depending on the quality of the surface I am working on.
Around my windows, for example, I haven't had to revarnish very often, less than once a year, so the finish isn't as thick as the rails, so on the windows I still need to use a 120 to 220 grit paper, whereas the rails get done at least every year, so have a perfectly smooth finish and get touched up with 440 grit paper.
Then two coats of Epifanes varnish. the second before the first is fully dried, so no sanding between. I do this every year, but sometimes it doesn't happen till I am away on annual vacation, as I wait for good weather, sun, warm, calm.
Without failure, my rails are the nicest around. Occasionally I see someone whose are as nice, but they usually have a story of a complete redo at great expense.

Ditto to Keith's post.

If you are not WOWED by shiney , deck stain is cheap and reallt fast to maintain.

Passes the 10ft test EZ.

The solution!!
I was in Lafitte, Louisiana when I saw a cruiser with beautiful brightwork, when I complimented the guy he told me his wife loves doing varnish work and takes care of it all, even the prep work, a couple of times a year! Very nice but I guess she might have had some faults to make up for it.
Happy New Year!
Steve W.

Yea, that does sound too good to be true. Then again, SHE would possibly have time to enjoy it - where HE is still having to fill water tanks, make repairs, service the generator and wash the boat.

"and wash the boat"

Doesn't it rain where you are?

If you want something that is low maintenance try Daleys teak see fin oil.* Its actual not an oil as it dries hard.* Many restaurants use it on their wood tables/doors/floors and I have been using it for 15+ years on our teak decks.* The rest of the bright work is high gloss Interlux Goldspare one part Polyurethane.*

I find varnishing relaxing as it is not hard and time consuming.** ****

Phil,
Thats what I use* ..Dalys. From the place on Stone Way in Seattle. Too much build for me but all the places that have build aren't black like the rest (about 50%). Just put it on this late summer too. I have the same problem w my wife. She just loves to varnish*** .. no** .. she has no friends. I've read that raw linseed oil, pine tar, turpentine, tung oil, kerosene and even lube oil can work well on wood. Just about anything will turn it black except varnish. Perhaps the fact that varnish sits on top of the wood and don'nt penetrate is responsible for the fact that it dosn't turn black.

Eric Henning

koliver wrote:

MT likes Cetol.
Cetol is not varnish, it has pigment in it, like paint, and will never give the sparkle that characterizes varnish.
When I do my varnish, I start with an artist's brush, 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide and soft. I touch up holes in the varnish, which i clean out with a small scraper.
I do not remover the old varnish anywhere that remains properly adhered to the teak. That took years and years to build to the thickness that permits the easy maintenance of a recoat once or at most twice a year.
Once the holes are patched, with as many coats as you need to build the spot up to the level of the rest of the adjoining surface, I sand the whole of the rail or other piece of teak that I am redoing, with fine paper, the fineness depending on the quality of the surface I am working on.
Around my windows, for example, I haven't had to revarnish very often, less than once a year, so the finish isn't as thick as the rails, so on the windows I still need to use a 120 to 220 grit paper, whereas the rails get done at least every year, so have a perfectly smooth finish and get touched up with 440 grit paper.
Then two coats of Epifanes varnish. the second before the first is fully dried, so no sanding between. I do this every year, but sometimes it doesn't happen till I am away on annual vacation, as I wait for good weather, sun, warm, calm.
Without failure, my rails are the nicest around. Occasionally I see someone whose are as nice, but they usually have a story of a complete redo at great expense.

Click to expand...

In reality there are different types of Cetol. There is the traditional Cetol with the orange hue, there is the lighter Cetol with much less orange glow, and the Clear Gloss Cetol which goes over the top of either of the other two. The clear gloss is as easy to apply as Epiphanes, and builds faster than Epiphanes. I have seat trim stained to match and then coated with Epiphanes directly next to (1" away) trim coated with Cetol clear gloss. You cannot tell the difference. To say that all Cetol has color to it is wrong.

I used gallons of Epiphanes on my previous boat in the 15 years I had it.*My current*boat had used Cetol prior to my buying her and so I continued with Cetol. Depending on your particular definition of what "varnish" is you may or may not agree. If you are only aware of the colored*undercoat Cetol then you need to visit the chandlery and look at the clear gloss.

*

Ken:
OK, maybe the folks at Cetol are listening. I don't need to mess with success, so I'll keep doing what I know works.

The "bible" for varnish and such is Rebecca Wittman's "Brightwork" aptly named. I don't know if it's still in print, but I think you can pick up a copy used on Amazon and other book sellers. Worth evey penny many times over if you're new to brightwork.

I use Signature Finish's Honey Teak on my boat. Follow the instructions carefully on the initial coating, then you'll only have to do maintenance once every year to 18 months. Beautiful finish!

http://www.fabulainc.com/

koliver wrote:

Ken:
OK, maybe the folks at Cetol are listening. I don't need to mess with success, so I'll keep doing what I know works.

Click to expand...

I think they got the message about the orange color loud and clear. With the newer colors they might start to build followers again. I thought I'd never leave Epiphanes, but I couldn't strip and revarnish the entire boat in any reasonable time period to warrant a change. Now after using Cetol for a few years, I see no reason to change back. Epiphanes is a great varnish. I wouldn't change just for the sake of change either.

*

Good to see you on the forum again Kieth. Yes Whittman's book is excellent but I think it's a book on varnishing** .. not finishing. However, I think I should read her stuff on interior teak finishing as my needs are mounting.
Ken,**
I don't like the Cetol orange at all and feel no need to buy any Cetol product for my boat. Here in Alaska there are numerous Cetol products in the hardware store in gallons that are good for houses and carports ect and many people use them w good results. For the price I think I can mix up my own stuff for a small fraction of the Cetol cost. There are many varnishes of very high quality that give beautiful and stunning results if properly used. Schooner, Epiphanes, Mcklosky's and others are excellent. The idea that one is better than the other is, I think, fly stuff. At one time ingredients were listed on the product and all one needed to know was that phenolic resin and tung oil produced the best varnish. Now they say "a tung oil product". Could be 30% tung oil or 2% tung oil, the rest being linseed oil (an inferrior product). Epoxy seems to be resin of resins for years now and I don't recall seeing an epoxy varnish. Does it exist? Keith, could the "Honey Teak" be epoxy?

Eric Henning

-- Edited by nomadwilly on Sunday 3rd of January 2010 03:38:24 PM

What about Bristol? Anyone has experience with that?

Fotoman wrote:

What about Bristol? Anyone has experience with that?

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Tried it once. It was very thin and runny. Lots of sags and thin spots. Maybe I did something wrong but I didn't like it and have no desire to try it again.


-- Edited by dwhatty on Monday 4th of January 2010 02:35:07 PM

I tried it twice! Didn't have success with it either time. I'm back to Epifane.

*
I have tried Bristo but its to thin/runny, hard to work with, and does not last any longer than some of the other varnishes that apply easier and build coats quicker.* I also use West System clear epoxy on certain weather areas and to build coats/layers quickly.* Many of the mega yachts are bright work are covered with Epoxy not varnish.* However, I do apply several coat of varnish over the epoxy for UV protection.*


*