Very Dry Teak: to oil or not to oil before epoxy?

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

I would use the old varnish, thinned with turps. ANd, similarly, with the paint, either oil base, semi gloss, or, if unable to find it, I'd use water-based exterior trim grade house paint.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to your question.

Ann

Very interesting Ann.

For internal coatings on my steel boat I had tried pretty well all the modern coatings and finally came to the conclusion that they were all inferior to many of the traditional coatings. I ended up a heavy user of a cement render made from boiled linseed oil and white cement. The boiled linseed oil gave good wetting and penetration and the cement a basic chemical environment in the presence of water and great early indication that corrosion was occurring.

The drying oil, which was the basis of most of the old oil based paints, was generally boiled linseed oil. This provided good penetration into the wood. Various fillers and colouring agents were used in the final gloss coat.

In western Queensland, where I was born and raised and which suffers from fierce summers with lots of UV, timber houses were repainted every 7-10 years which I would consider exceptional performance on a boat.

I'm going to ponder on this for a while yet but looking very favourably at your suggestions.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Very interesting Ann.

For internal coatings on my steel boat I had tried pretty well all the modern coatings and finally came to the conclusion that they were all inferior to many of the traditional coatings. I ended up a heavy user of a cement render made from boiled linseed oil and white cement. The boiled linseed oil gave good wetting and penetration and the cement a basic chemical environment in the presence of water and great early indication that corrosion was occurring.

The drying oil, which was the basis of most of the old oil based paints, was generally boiled linseed oil. This provided good penetration into the wood. Various fillers and colouring agents were used in the final gloss coat.

In western Queensland, where I was born and raised and which suffers from fierce summers with lots of UV, timber houses were repainted every 7-10 years which I would consider exceptional performance on a boat.

I'm going to ponder on this for a while yet but looking very favourably at your suggestions.

It's a funny old world, Raymond. The thing I like about the process is that it is relatively painlessly reversible. If you just prepare the teak and paint it, without the varnish seal step, there is hell to pay trying to get the paint color out of the soft grain that wasn't sealed. You have to sand and sand and sand, and a lot of that dust is good teak, but it has to go to get down to fresh soft grain.

If you don't think you'd ever want to see the lovely timber looking great again, the whole process is more work, obviously. But if you want the option, it is the only way I know of to protect the timber, and be able to go back. What's sorta neat is that even the maroon looked shipshape. I think I'd go with the grey, myself, but it is a place where personal expression is harmless.

Incidentally, we have some friends with a steel cc boat. They paint their boat when it needs it, IN THE WATER, with rollers, with exterior grade house paint. It is orange-peely up close, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than marine grade 2 part polyurethanes. And from a distance, their boat looks white yacht, just fine.

Finally, yes, have to agree, newer isn't always better. Funny, that.

Ann

PS. Boiled linseed oil and wood is interesting. I had a house, once upon a time, that had a broken pipe, and it flooded the hardwood floor in the bottom of the linen closet. The timber warped and tore itself up. Looked scary. On the advide of a friend, made about 3 applications of linseed oil, and it relaxed, and laid itself right down. Once it settled, I just waxed it. It looked fine. Was that way when I sold the house.