Can I leave my teak natural?

I have been sanding non stop since closing on Friday. The teak is beautiful when sanded. Can I wipe it down with Murphy's oil soap, (which really does not contain soap) and reinstall?

I'm not liking the idea of paint, varnish, oil, etc.

Interior or exterior?

Exterior

You certainly can, and some do. Unprotected teak will not last as long as protected teak in an exterior setting. The only question is how significant is the difference. Well varnished and maintained teak will outlast you. Unprotected teak likely would outlast your ownership of the boat.

I hate sanding and varnishing with a passion. I would be tempted to leave it bare or use a teak oil. Keep in mind however that untreated teak will weather and eventually become uncomfortable on feet and hands.

Donna said:

Exterior

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Yes you can leave it natural.

Just clean it periodically with a mild teak cleaner or Cascade, Tide with bleach, etc. Use scuffy pads and try to only scrub across the grain.

Which can be hard to do with rails obviously.

A heads up though, If you leave it natural and then later want to put a finish on, you will have lost some soft grain in the teak. For a smooth finish, the wood would require a lot of sanding.

WOW! Thank you all!!! I'm a happy camper. I'm going to leave it natural and wipe it down often. It is trim, (a lot of it!) so I'm not worried about hands or feet! LOL!!

I will try and post pics of it, before and after.

Trim is a different animal then teak decking... Boats that leave trim to grey seem neglected... We use cetol on trim and varnish on rails and caps. Cetol requires less work in my experience.. Still have to sand and prep wood though for the initial application.

There is a CHB sedan on my dock that has been for sale for some time and neglected. All the teak has gone grey and yes while decks may look OK unfinished, top side teak, rails, caps, windows etc, left unfinished just look neglected.

We're allowing all our Teak to go grey. And I'm helping it along by removing the remaining various varnishes and finishes. I will maintain only the sliding doors and the associated trim with Cetol.

Agree that a boat's peeling brightwork looks awful. Also, dirty, stained Teak looks awful. But a nice, classy grey? I think it's just fine, and a little gentle across-grain scrub will keep it adequately classy.

Also agree that a multi-coat, look-into-the-depths, sparkling-in-the-sun, gloss varnish is best of all for trim and hulls. I have neither the staff, nor the knees...

Nothing will keep a freshly-sanded, bright, light-colored look on wood, even if kept in a dark closet. So-called Teak oils have labels, including price stickers, which will make you weep when you read 'em: precious little 'Teak oil' and lots of thinners. Tung and Linseed oils are not weather-resistant; fine for interior out-of-sunlight and away-from-water-sources places.

A lot of good info given, nothing lost with trying it, eventually you will either leave gray or put some type of coating on it.

Varnished decorative exterior teak (brightwork) does look more attractive than grayed in my opinion. Teak decks are another issue. In my experience, a periodic scrub down with salt water does the trick on teak decks. I have always been reluctant to scrub with chemicals unless strictly necessary. If you know Sabre fast trawlers, you will know we have very little decorative teak--so I can endorse maintaining it

Don't bring up anchors ;-)

Greetings,
Mr. Gm. But, but...I though anchors were meant to be put down and brought up...Oh, I see what you did there...

Donna said:

WOW! Thank you all!!! I'm a happy camper. I'm going to leave it natural and wipe it down often. It is trim, (a lot of it!) so I'm not worried about hands or feet! LOL!!

I will try and post pics of it, before and after.

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You could paint a lot of the trim.

It takes a lot of sanding and effort to get back to "green teak", and even if you varnish it, it soon loses that original appearance. Too much sanding = too much loss of wood.
On my side nameboards I sanded smooth but not totally "green",and used a diluted teak stain, quite dilute, applied several times to get the degree of color I wanted. Worked a treat, under Cetol TGL Plus Gloss, my choice of varnish.
Left untreated, your teak will develop ridges as soft material between harder material wears away, just from weathering. Don`t leave it untreated, I have some areas a PO left, and the ridging is such that I`m not prepared to sand completely smooth because of the resultant loss of wood, I just let it happen gradually as I maintain the finish I applied.
If you apply an oil, and keep applying it as soon as the surface looks a little "dry", that may be enough. The initial saturation takes some time, but after that it`s just maintenance. Where I keep just an oiled surface I use Deks Olje No.1, but mostly I add the related gloss product No.2 on top. Their system rarely requires hard sanding or complete removal of the old surface,unlike varnish type products. How do I know? I`m doing my annual revival, right now.

Hi Donna, been following your new purchase . Ask a question an get completely different answers. Congrats on the new boat!! IMO you need to ask yourself what in your minds eye your boat should look like. Then you need to ask yourself honestly how much time you have to maintain (please think maintenance on a regular basis). It's really easy to go full speed and then not be able to maintain the look you want.
I've owned and maintained for over 30 years. I've had great ideas that I couldn't put the time into later because the boat required other things on a timely basis.
Unfinished teak still requires time and effort. I've gone to cetol for limited trim. In my opinion the mainence of a light sanding and a recoat is less than the cleaning of raw teak. I've done
The DeksOle route with no harm, it weathered off for me with no extra work, but it hardly lasted a season without the gloss addition.
If I were to sit down over a docktail with you, I'd be advising you to look at the 3 year list you have ahead of you. Ergo let the teak go gray, get on with the next project, and when after 4-5. years the boat is beginning to be "there" go after the fine details.
Have fun, and welcome to the life style!!

Cheers

Donna said:

I have been sanding non stop since closing on Friday. The teak is beautiful when sanded. Can I wipe it down with Murphy's oil soap, (which really does not contain soap) and reinstall?

I'm not liking the idea of paint, varnish, oil, etc.

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Unfinished teak trim usually degrades the look of the boat and gives the impression it's neglected. So if you plan on cleaning washing on a regular basis might as well seal or varnish the teak. Once you have the initial 4 to 6 coats, then once a year lightly sand and apply a new coat.

If you're not keen on varnish then consider sealing the teak. On the teak decks I use Dally Sea Fin sealer sold at marine store with teak oils. How ever several coats have to be applied then ones a year scrub clean and apply a new coat.

No matter what you decide some effort has to be done. I prefer varnish for the teak trim and sealer for the decks.

Donna,
I had a beautiful little trawler for 8 years that had a lot of teak trim. I hired out the varnishing which the boat needed every 8 months or so. It got pretty expensive to keep it up (the varnish) and we required another stateroom and more speed so we sold it' The second boat in the photos has no trim teak which is a godsend. Only the cockpit floor is teak and we allow that to stay natural with a cleaning from time to time. Life is much better now!

Angelina has sported the 'workboat' look of grey on most of her teak for over a quarter of a century. There is just enough well kept brightwork on her to keep the naysayers at bay.

Neglect this!

Greetings,
Ms. D. As Mr. 11 suggested on post #15, you could paint a lot of the trim. A half decent paint job should last 5+ years at which point you may opt to go back to a varnish/Cetol type finish or re-paint. VERY IMPORTANT if you do decide to paint! Please seal your raw teak with two or three coats of varnish/Cetol first, yes, before you put on the paint.

The reasoning behind this is IF you or a subsequent owner decides to revert to a varnish/Cetol finish it will be much easier to strip the paint down to clear teak as the paint has not soaked into the pores of the raw teak.

Gmarr said:

Don't bring up anchors ;-)

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Don't you sand and varnish the brightwork on your anchors??

Phil Fill said:

Unfinished teak trim usually degrades the look of the boat and gives the impression it's neglected. So if you plan on cleaning washing on a regular basis might as well seal or varnish the teak. Once you have the initial 4 to 6 coats, then once a year lightly sand and apply a new coat.

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Only 4-6 coats and a one new coat a year!? Maybe you get away with that some place where sun doesn't come out much. And you don't care if the wood grain is still coming through the varnish job.

10-12 costs is more like it if you want the deep gloss and longevity you get from a varnish job that truly fills the grain gives you a nice depth of finish.

Here in south Florida a old school varnish job will need to be recoated at a minimum of 2 times a year if you're lucky.

alormaria said:

Angelina has sported the 'workboat' look of grey on most of her teak for over a quarter of a century. There is just enough well kept brightwork on her to keep the naysayers at bay.

Neglect this!

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Chris K said:

...
Unfinished teak still requires time and effort. I've gone to cetol for limited trim. In my opinion the maintaintence of a light sanding and a recoat is less than the cleaning of raw teak. I've done
The DeksOlje route with no harm, it weathered off for me with no extra work, but it hardly lasted a season without the gloss addition.

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Deks Olje # 1 is an oil. It is applied in saturation initially, but needs maintenance applications, maybe 3 monthly. The optional #2 is a gloss finish, lasts about a year. Importantly,it does not fail by bubbling and peeling like varnish and requiring 100% removal. It just loses shine, and can be recoated, and easily sanded to remove build up. I`ve just come home from doing the recoating, hope it is still shiny tomorrow, but it needs one more coat.

Oh jeez! I think this is going to be trial and error for me. I don't mind the walk around while under power for wiping down, but maintenance every 3 months with sanding? Not for me.

Our boat has a 'work boat' heritage, so I'm leaning towards grey teak with a touch of finished brightwork. Figure I've got till next spring to make a choice as to what product to use, and I keep waffling between tung oil and boiled linseed oil. So far, Allback is winning; Purified Linseed Oil: Boiled & Raw Organic Linseed Oil

As to application (brush on, let soak in, wipe off excess with a rag) one good tip I heard from a wood boat forum was, "Twice a day for a week, twice a week for a month, twice a month for a year, twice a year for life".

What tipped me in BLO's direction was a conversation I had with an old, retired Newfie (Newfoundland) fisherman. (It's amazing how much advice you can get from people walking the docks when they see you scraping old, flaking varnish off.) He said BLO was all they ever used...I figure they had more important things to do than fuss over making their boats purdy!

Donna said:

I have been sanding non stop since closing on Friday. The teak is beautiful when sanded. Can I wipe it down with Murphy's oil soap, (which really does not contain soap) and reinstall?

I'm not liking the idea of paint, varnish, oil, etc.

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Teak is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending aggression resistance even if it is offering a natural protection.

After sanding your teak, I should like, however, to draw your attention to the absolute need (in my own opinion and experience) to protect wood from atmospheric aggressions, particularly pollution and dark spots from birds, with 2 layers of special teak pore filler. Improving as well the storm-water drainage, pore filler is very easy to applying (consistency of water). Durability and stability of the product is very good over the medium term (2 years).

I would further like to add that a good pore filler does not leave film and allows to varnish your teak if later you should wish to change your mind about that.

I am aware that your concern was not about your deck, but as an example, here are some pictures before, and last week after 2 layers of pore filler applied almost 4 months ago on previously cleaned decks. The same result can, however, be achieved in another part of your boat like your rails.

Finally, I have used this for quite a number of years on my previous boats and it has proved to be very useful and good looking.

Plenty of varnish, plenty of bare.

All good.

Donna said:

Oh jeez! I think this is going to be trial and error for me. I don't mind the walk around while under power for wiping down, but maintenance every 3 months with sanding? Not for me.

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No reason to sand when applying a 3 monthly maintenance coat of oil. Wipe it on with a sponge or rag as needed, under power or docked, and you`re done.