As I wait on a hitch wiring kit for my car I've decided to do a little tiller and rudder improvement. I have sanded the wood and am wondering what the group thinks would be a good varnish. I'm thinking of hanging it from the shed ceiling and varnishing it vertically. Any suggestions and guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Look for an exterior grade spar varnish that has UV inhibitors in it. I prefer an oil base instead of a water based varnish. It has been awhile but the last time I varnished my tiller I used Ace Hardware brand. They had a smaller can available which allowed
for several coats. Also a natural bristle brush helps too.
Mike
My favorite is Pettit Flagship Varnish. High build, UV inhibitors, flows out well, sands great. Spring for the 120 Thinner. It does curtain if applied too heavily, watch for that. Self-priming thinned, I've never tried their 2018 Sealer.
https://www.pettitpaint.com/products/varnish-wood-finishes/wood-sealer/ez-wood-sealer/
I've had good luck with Epifanes gloss clear. However, whatever you choose, invest in a tiller cover if the boat is to remain outside subject to UV. It will extend the length of time between refinishes. I took a scrap of Sunbrella, got out the dreaded sewing machine and made one.
AMEN to the tiller cover.
You can apply 20 coats and it won?t last?unless you have a cover.
However, 4 - 5 coats would be sweet.
Happy sanding till the black is gone.
X: All of this advice is dead on. I've used Flagship and it's a durable and hard finish which like all varnishes, will need to periodically refreshed. A cover is a must. Not very expensive but it will lengthen the life of your varnish and your tiller will be much happier!
There is a very good book available entitled "Brightwork. The Art of Finishing Wood" By Rebecca Wittman which focuses on wood on sailboats. A very good investment or you can probably find it at the library. I bought mine, I keep it as a reference book.
Best,
Bob23
Wonderful. Thanks for all the great guidance. By the way, are my images appearung HUGE to everyone else or is it just me? I apologize if thats the case.
Going bright is a lot of work, but can be rewarding.
Yup, the photos are huge. File sizes around 100 kB are plenty. When I resize, I just set the longest dimension to 600-700 pixels. Don't know why the file size limits are so high. Unfortunately, photos don't preview.
Yep, you have to resize. I keep an album of photos that have been resized just for this forum.
This is a tiller I made done with Bristol two part poly. A nice finish but I would not recommend, expensive, pot life on a mix, and it didn't last any longer than a standard marine varnish.
By the way, while I use Flagship on the tiller, I do not use it anywhere else. It is the smoothest and hardest varnish that I know of and when I first bought my 23, I removed all of the exterior teak I could, sanded it to bare wood and eventually completed a 7 coat Flagship project, in a small heated finishing room. It looked great for about 4 years, then eventually started to blister. Again, all the teak parts were removed, sanded bare and now I use Cetot which is much more forgiving and very easy to apply and maintain. For the final coat, the Cetol gloss is a must as it seems to be a slightly harder finish than the standard Cetol finish. I use the teak flavor!
I also use Cetol om my customers exterior mahogany handrails on their bayfront home. I can get 2 years before any maintenance is needed, and they are outside, 24/7.
Bottoms up!
Bob23
Quote from: Bob23 on September 02, 2022, 05:59:46 PM
By the way, while I use Flagship on the tiller, I do not use it anywhere else. It is the smoothest and hardest varnish that I know of and when I first bought my 23, I removed all of the exterior teak I could, sanded it to bare wood and eventually completed a 7 coat Flagship project, in a small heated finishing room. It looked great for about 4 years, then eventually started to blister. Again, all the teak parts were removed, sanded bare and now I use Cetot which is much more forgiving and very easy to apply and maintain. For the final coat, the Cetol gloss is a must as it seems to be a slightly harder finish than the standard Cetol finish. I use the teak flavor!
I also use Cetol om my customers exterior mahogany handrails on their bayfront home. I can get 2 years before any maintenance is needed, and they are outside, 24/7.
Bottoms up!
Bob23
I second this advice. I use Epifanes on the COVERED tiller, but not any where else. For the first time last year I used Cetol Natural Teak, followed by Cetol Marine Gloss. After a year I have NO breaks in the finish, which has never happened with a half dozen other finish options. And I'm UV exposed all the time. Getting ready to put a maintenance coat of gloss on, without having to go through the normal strip, sand and multi coat refinish.