Michael MacDonald
03-24-2010, 2:25 PM
I have built a bench for my front porch with white oak (heavy sucker). I had planned on finishing it with Watco danish oil in a medium walnut tint... and then spraying spar varnish from Helmsmans. So I was researching that approach to get some feel-good confirmation. uh oh.
I have learned from some seemingly authoritative web sites that spar varnish (and helmsmans in particular) is not so great: it is soft, it doesn't protect against moisture well, and the UV protection wears out eventually. The real feature of spar varnish seems to be that the softness of the finish allows for wood movement (e..g stress on masts and yard arms on sailboats), but that the other features one typically attributes to it (moisture protection, UV protection) aren't really there. Funny, because most recommendation specify spar varnish (woodwhisper, this forum, and many others)... seems like conventional wisdom maybe is off-kilter? or am I just personally off-kilter?
here is the main reference that seems to buck conventional wisdom and has thrown me off course: http://www.hardwoodlumberandmore.com/Hardwood/Finishing/MarineVarnish.html
So now what? I really like the way the danish oil made the white oak grain pop on my test pieces... I would like to stick with that as the first treatment. Watco makes an external oil as well, which is nice--but only in Natural. (Actually, the final tint is not so far off from the med walnut.) But why do I suspect those writers at the web site reference above would dismiss it out of hand?
So I am considering a coat of the danish oil, then after a day trying a coat or two or three of the Watco external oil. Don't even know if that makes sense--will the external oil coat penetrate enough to do any good?
Any other suggestions? I am really lost at this point... rug completely pulled out from under me. derailed and bewildered.
just for kicks... here is dry assembly from a few weeks ago... bottom and lid are missing, and I hadn't yet finished turning the legs:
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/miwmacdo/DSCF0876.jpg
I have learned from some seemingly authoritative web sites that spar varnish (and helmsmans in particular) is not so great: it is soft, it doesn't protect against moisture well, and the UV protection wears out eventually. The real feature of spar varnish seems to be that the softness of the finish allows for wood movement (e..g stress on masts and yard arms on sailboats), but that the other features one typically attributes to it (moisture protection, UV protection) aren't really there. Funny, because most recommendation specify spar varnish (woodwhisper, this forum, and many others)... seems like conventional wisdom maybe is off-kilter? or am I just personally off-kilter?
here is the main reference that seems to buck conventional wisdom and has thrown me off course: http://www.hardwoodlumberandmore.com/Hardwood/Finishing/MarineVarnish.html
So now what? I really like the way the danish oil made the white oak grain pop on my test pieces... I would like to stick with that as the first treatment. Watco makes an external oil as well, which is nice--but only in Natural. (Actually, the final tint is not so far off from the med walnut.) But why do I suspect those writers at the web site reference above would dismiss it out of hand?
So I am considering a coat of the danish oil, then after a day trying a coat or two or three of the Watco external oil. Don't even know if that makes sense--will the external oil coat penetrate enough to do any good?
Any other suggestions? I am really lost at this point... rug completely pulled out from under me. derailed and bewildered.
just for kicks... here is dry assembly from a few weeks ago... bottom and lid are missing, and I hadn't yet finished turning the legs:
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/miwmacdo/DSCF0876.jpg