With the weather worsening, the wind blowing the canoe off its stand, the constant rains and temperature dropping i had to get one last feature done before i shelved the project until Spring. The canoe needed to be water-proof. This means varnishing or painting the exterior obviously, but also the interior for those instances when the wind blows it off its stand and it ends up exposed while i'm away for a few days.
The problem was that i was still undecided whether i wanted to paint the canoe or varnish it. The weather forced my decision and i figured i'd try varnishing it first and if it didn't look OK then i'd paint over the top of the varnish!
The next sunny day, as if by magic, some elves appeared from nowhere to lend a hand ...
They applied Sandolin "Teak" wood stain that had been diluted half-half with white spirit to make the dye less dark.
The dye was absorbed by the epoxied glass-tape to some measure which i hadn't expected. We were really pleased with the result of the wood stain - and realised that we wouldn't need to colour-paint the canoe after-all. I was really pleased about that because i love natural wood finishes.
Once stained and dried, we applied Sandolin Yacht Varnish to inside and outside to give the plywood canoe it's water-proofing. No more fussing about with tarpaulins in the wind and rain !! Yay!!
Previously the epoxied glass-tape seams were darker than the adjacent planks but now, because the plywood absorbed the wood stain more than the glass-tape did the effect was reversed. And although it's not perfect, because you can see the ragged seams, in my opinion the finish is nice enough to justify keeping a varnish finish.
Job done just in time for the Winter. Feet up until Spring!
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