Restoring Wooden Blades

G

Gerard

New Member
Hi,

I still use the original wooden rudder and board. They are beautiful, but the surface is not entirely smooth: it has some dings / dents / scratches, etc. The rudder also has some kind of a "wave" in it near the top (it is not flat). What do people recommend to restore the blades. My guess is that I should start with taking off all the paint, but what should I use to fill in the dents and scratches, and what kind of paint should I use to repaint them.

Thank you for your suggestions!

Gerard
 
Hi Gerard, I'm actually refurbishing some mohogany blades right now as well. Firstly I used a circular grinder/sander with an 80 grit disk to remove all the varnish. I then used my palm sander starting with 100 grit working my way up to 220 sanding and smoothing the blades. To fill them I used West System epoxy mixed with High Density filler to give it the look of real wood. (All this stuff is avaliable at West Marine or any local marine shop.)

After they are looking good, I give them about 5 coats of varnish for a nice, shiny finish.

For the groove at the top of the daggerboars and anywhere the big sander couldn't fit, I used my trusty Dremel which did a fine job.

Good luck!
 
Another trick for the groove at the top of the centerboard is to wrap your sandpaper around a socket (I think I used a 11/16" deep). It also works well for the back side of wooden grab rails.
 
Just a little tip, when you apply several coats of varnish, use a fine sand paper to take the brightness off before the next coat, the finish will be much better looking, and the next coat will hold much better too...
 
Chuso007 said:
Just a little tip, when you apply several coats of varnish, use a fine sand paper to take the brightness off before the next coat, the finish will be much better looking, and the next coat will hold much better too...
Click to expand...

One of those green scotch pads works nicely for this as well. And for my two cents, Goldspar, or Schooner varnishes are very nice choices. They are both interlux products I believe. I have ha good luck with them. The Schooner is a darker finish but otherwise I think the two are the same.
-Jack
 
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