Interior Teak

[T37Chef]

Our interior teak is unvarnished. My Aunt & Uncle suggested Murphy's Soap with water to clean it once in a while, followed by Solid Gold. It works well on our boat. Some areas that seem worn I use oil, but prefer not to if I can, they seem to cause more and attract allot of dirt.

Sailor Mitch recommended to me once using Minewax Paste Finishing Wax or similar, he has used it on his boat and must say it looks great.

[mysticsailor]

The interior teak on our new '88 Sabre 30 had only been teak oiled by the PO.It looked dull and a little dirty. We are cleaning it with Starbrite Teak Cleaner, sanding smooth, Applying Watco Teak oil finish to feed the wood, letting that dry 72 hours, then a quick wipe with acetone to get off the surface teak oil, followed by 2 coats of gloss Minwax wipe on polyurethane and a top coat of satin Minwax wipe on poly. It looks great and it should just need to be wiped down periodically to remove surface dirt.We didn't want to have to keep reapplying teak oil, so spending a little more time in the beginning seemed justified in our minds.

[saildork]

Question: Why does varnish need constant care on teak but lasts forever on gelcoat?