Several weekends ago, with a sharp scraper and heat gun, I
began peeling off Rhythm’s exterior varnish. The ship’s log indicates it
has been 10 years since last she was back to bare teak, so this is several
years overdue. Typically, the base varnish coat begins detaching from the
wood substrate after seven or eight years depending on climate. Teak is an oil-saturated wood which, on the one hand, protects it
from deterioration due to the elements, but on the other hand, destines brightwork to a
decade life-span at best. It makes sense to “scratch & patch” the
first tell-tale failure points, although the repaired areas are lighter in
color than the rest. Eventually after many patch jobs the brightwork looks mottled, and with
new areas delaminating in increasing size & frequency, the daunting task of
scraping off all the old, sanding to clear wood, and then building up a new varnish system, becomes unavoidable.
Getting to the point where I was ready to apply fresh varnish took over 100 hours of heavy duty sanding, working first with an orbital sander, then a
hand block, then free-hand, and finally using small “invented” tools to work in
tight corners. What you see prior to laying on the first coat of varnish is what you’ll
live with for the next 10 years, so the prep-work needs to be thorough.
Similar to varnishing, sanding requires multiple passes, first with 80 grit
sandpaper (to clear the remaining old varnish and “shape” the wood), then 150
grit (to smooth the 80 grit surface and reveal the wood grain), and finally 220
grit (to increase resolution and beauty of the wood grain leaving a silky
smooth surface). Thinking through the routine now, there are eight unique
passes over the wood before it’s ready for the varnish primer coat.
After sanding and detailing, you need to tape off the surrounding surfaces in preparation for applying the varnish primer coat; only professionals lay on varnish without masking tape that catches errant brush strokes, drips, etc. It will take the rest of the summer to build up enough varnish coats to call it brightwork, . . . at least 220 hours to complete 12 coats @ 7 hrs to varnish and 9 hrs to sand after each new coat, plus un-taping and re-taping after every 3rd or 4th coat.
Thankfully thus far no setbacks or accidents other than small burns from the heat gun and sanding off my finger prints. I have had to change the security feature on my mobile phone that reads my fingerprint until they grow back. Sometime, I’ll tell you about the time (10 years ago) when I picked up the heat gun by the wrong end, . . . now that caused some damage!
After sanding and detailing, you need to tape off the surrounding surfaces in preparation for applying the varnish primer coat; only professionals lay on varnish without masking tape that catches errant brush strokes, drips, etc. It will take the rest of the summer to build up enough varnish coats to call it brightwork, . . . at least 220 hours to complete 12 coats @ 7 hrs to varnish and 9 hrs to sand after each new coat, plus un-taping and re-taping after every 3rd or 4th coat.
Thankfully thus far no setbacks or accidents other than small burns from the heat gun and sanding off my finger prints. I have had to change the security feature on my mobile phone that reads my fingerprint until they grow back. Sometime, I’ll tell you about the time (10 years ago) when I picked up the heat gun by the wrong end, . . . now that caused some damage!
