Varnishing Observations

shorefun

Well-Known Member
Using the lower cost Urethane spar varnish recommended previously I have been coating a dagger board and 2 tillers.

The dagger board was missing most of its varnish and the wood was grey. One tiller was mostly covered with varnish the other not so much.

The dagger board is on its 4th coat and finally has a glossy look to it with wet paint. It was soooo dry.

The one tiller that was partially grey wood is coming up with a gloss on the good wood and no much on the grey areas.

The tiller that has good wood is picking up a nice gloss.

Not using a lot of varnish and I bought a quart. Way more then you would need if you were doing just one boat.

Still have 2 rudders to varnish. One with grey wood and the other with a nice red color.
 
I use a belt sander to reduce the grey wood down to the color of mahogany. (Always sanding with the grain). :)

The grey weathering runs deep, but mahogany is such an elegant wood, I think it's worth the loss of fractional inches.

There must be a primer to bring the dry wood back to varnish; however, if you're thinning the first couple of urethane coats, I'd think that'd be enough.
 
The first 3 coats were thinned out some.
I thought about going further down on the grey, but honestly it was running real deep. Plus the wood had a lot of cracks including a crack that was about 8" long and 3/4 the way through the wood. This dagger board was more of a practice for me as it is 'extra'.

Anyway, I stopped sanding because it would take a while and I had other things to deal with that were more important. There is always a balance.

One the other hand, the rudder from my sons Sunfish was pretty decent has a real nice color so I worked more time on it to make it look pretty.
 
I thought about going further down on the grey, but honestly it was running real deep. Plus the wood had a lot of cracks including a crack that was about 8" long and 3/4 the way through the wood. This dagger board was more of a practice for me as it is 'extra'.

Anyway, I stopped sanding because it would take a while and I had other things to deal with that were more important. There is always a balance.

One the other hand, the rudder from my sons Sunfish was pretty decent has a real nice color so I worked more time on it to make it look pretty.
I've got a similar "incompletely cracked" rudder. :oops:

Perhaps I should wire-brush what I can reach, and fill with "sawdusted" Six-10 or Thixo.

Maybe SC/someone has a suggestion?
 
I clamped the board and found that closed the crack. So I put in some thin epoxy I had and clamped it tight.
I let it cure for a couple of days.
 
I've got a similar "incompletely cracked" rudder. :oops:

Perhaps I should wire-brush what I can reach, and fill with "sawdusted" Six-10 or Thixo.

Maybe SC/someone has a suggestion?
I started a thread on this subject recently. I’d have filled the crack with thickened epoxy, clamped, sanded, then coated the whole rudder with epoxy. SC and tag and others have also encouraged a horizontal screw for reinforcement, as well.
No need to thin the varnish, at least I’ve never needed to.
 

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I read mixed things about thinning. Figured it would not hurt.
After working with the Helmsman spar urethane i do not see it as critical.
I got a Purdy syntox brush but I do not like how it lays down the varnish. I have a used Amber Fong brush that does a nicer job. But it had some white paint in it that I did not know was there and it started coming out the second time I used it. I will try a cheap Ace wall brush next.
 

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