Bright-work refinish with Honey Teak, advice?

[mrybas]

I did some HT on bare wood around the cockpit coaming around 10pm......no bubbles. It must be a sun/heat related problem.

[RichH]

"Rich H- If I understand you correctly, less catalyst will make the batch kick faster? So, you recommend less catalyst for verticals, which will speed up the 'kick"?"

Yup, as strange as it seems, less catalyst (and less 'flow fluid") will speed up the 'kick'.

As stated before DONT WORRY ABOUT THE BUBBLES ON THE FIRST COAT .... the successive coats will fill in the 'crater' left by the 'bubbles'. Varnish can also do this 'bubbles' / outgassing; just be sure to lay on THICK (on the 'horizontals') and the craters will 'fill' and level out. Promise.

Note: if you HAVE to flat sand because the 'bubbles' are showing through successive coats, do not sand the 'base coat' but add a few more 'clear' coats and flat sand the clear (only) coats .... if you see 'yellow' in the sanding water, STOP, as you are now sanding down into the base coat.

If you have a LOT of 'craters' from all the bubbling of the first coating ON (hot) HORIZONTALS, let cure a bit for several HOURS, then apply more but use a polyethylene trowel and PUSH new base, etc. INTO the craters. The trowel will remove the new and will help to fill the 'craters' ...... just like how one works gelcoat on a male plug mold. Ditto for 'leveling' boo-boos on the large vertical surfaces; for 'verticals' use LESS 'flow fluid'.

:-D

[CalebD]

Holy Toledo Batman, there is a lot of teak on your boat! Gorgeous but a bit of work, eh?
Great suggestions on the use of HT by RichH above. I had a similar problem using Bristol Finish (BF) on a much smaller project (grab rails) for my boat - the dreaded bubbling. Subsequent sanding and re-coating seemed to take care of it.
I second or third the advice of only using an oil based product like teak oil or the Semco mentioned on your decks or nothing at all. Most regular finishes can get quite slippery when wet.

Cetol (Interlux) recently came out with a new flavor called 'Natural Teak' which I have used on most of my exterior teak (not nearly as much as yours) with positive results with mostly annual maintenance. I'm quite sure it is cheaper, looks more like varnish then Cetol 'Marine' and does not have the 'bubble up' issue that some of the eurathane products seem to have like HT and BF.

I hope that HT works out for you with RichH's advice.


"a three hour tour, a three hour tour..."

[bljones]

What kind of brushes were you using? Did you stir or shake the finishing material before using it? did you clear your brushes prior to each application? did you work the finish back and forth, or lay it down in one direction? did you wipe down the teak with acetone or laquer thinner immediately before laying on your finish?

[RichH]

Generally 'quality' foam brushes work well when using HT; although, high quality 'soft' large artists brushes work best followed by lightly and quickly 'tipping' with a dry foam brush. Laydown should be the same as varnish - full brush pulled in one direction only and at a low angle with light pressure, just like varnish you want it to 'flow'. For superb flow-out and leveling on the final clear coat, the use of a Preval type self-contained spray-bottle is ultimately the 'very best'. Preval Paint Spray Gun Kit

Acetone or Lacquer thinner, etc. are 'verboten' when using HT, so is the prior use of any 'stripper' unless you are willing to wait an immense amount of time for the MEK, etc. to outgas away.