What's your favorite varnish, prep and application method? Capn Jack did amazing varnish work but the skill never transferred over to me. Skipper has it but she is usually entertaining herself elsewhere when the sander starts up. So I do minimal varnish work, just enough to protect the blades and am happy with the workboat finish. Alan OTOH does amazing work. I'd like to get better.
Last year we tried out TotalBoat Halcyon, water based. I started with a crusty spoon tip daggerboard, sanded off the big chunks with 120 grit, wiped off some dust with a towel and we brushed on a couple of coats full strength. The varnish performed to our satisfaction, but we decided to play with it a little more recently. I scuffed the finish and brushed on 6 more coats, it looked great but I could see some old divots translating through the additional coats.
2 more coats, still drying.
4 more coats, 6 total.
We wrote an article about Halcyon Rugged Amber Gloss Varnish that published this month in Small Boats Magazine, and a reader was curious about whether we could get a smoother finish. While we prefer the wooden parts on our small boats to have some grit to them, making them easier to hold onto and handle when wet, out of curiosity I wooded one side of the board and am applying 5 new coats of Halcyon. We also prefer the satin finish, and our next step is to apply a couple of finish coats of Halcyon Satin over the gloss base coats. Photos later today.
We've tried several varnishes, Capn Jack liked the Pettit line, Z Spar I believe. I used Minwax combo stain and polyurethane for a while, they were okay and tried one of their water based varnishes, wasn't a fan. Lately it has been separate Minwax stain with TotalBoat Gleam Satin. And West System 105 epoxy with 207 Special Clear Hardener was the trick on ZIP.
(Image: Lewis. Small Boats Magazine. Sep 2020)
But remember, I am not a good varnish prepper, I do very little sanding, no bleaching, and rarely clean the wood with thinner or dewaxer. So I hope this varnish proves to be durable, because I know it is easy to use, we varnished inside the house, no fumes, and I rinsed the brush in the kitchen sink each time. And I've had that bag of varnish almost a year.
Tell us your trade secrets.
Last year we tried out TotalBoat Halcyon, water based. I started with a crusty spoon tip daggerboard, sanded off the big chunks with 120 grit, wiped off some dust with a towel and we brushed on a couple of coats full strength. The varnish performed to our satisfaction, but we decided to play with it a little more recently. I scuffed the finish and brushed on 6 more coats, it looked great but I could see some old divots translating through the additional coats.
2 more coats, still drying.
4 more coats, 6 total.
We wrote an article about Halcyon Rugged Amber Gloss Varnish that published this month in Small Boats Magazine, and a reader was curious about whether we could get a smoother finish. While we prefer the wooden parts on our small boats to have some grit to them, making them easier to hold onto and handle when wet, out of curiosity I wooded one side of the board and am applying 5 new coats of Halcyon. We also prefer the satin finish, and our next step is to apply a couple of finish coats of Halcyon Satin over the gloss base coats. Photos later today.
We've tried several varnishes, Capn Jack liked the Pettit line, Z Spar I believe. I used Minwax combo stain and polyurethane for a while, they were okay and tried one of their water based varnishes, wasn't a fan. Lately it has been separate Minwax stain with TotalBoat Gleam Satin. And West System 105 epoxy with 207 Special Clear Hardener was the trick on ZIP.
(Image: Lewis. Small Boats Magazine. Sep 2020)
But remember, I am not a good varnish prepper, I do very little sanding, no bleaching, and rarely clean the wood with thinner or dewaxer. So I hope this varnish proves to be durable, because I know it is easy to use, we varnished inside the house, no fumes, and I rinsed the brush in the kitchen sink each time. And I've had that bag of varnish almost a year.
Tell us your trade secrets.