Okay, here are some photos. Fred (why did I write "Frank"? too many chemicals?)... yes, Fred asked me how products like Snappy Teak-Nu and Te-Ka affect new cedar, so I did a test. I have some Snappy Teak-Nu on hand, and used it on some old wood and some new wood. Bottom line- it had no discernable effect on new cedar.
The first two photos below show a 1917 Old Town. The first photo shows the ribs and planking (red and white cedar, respectively) after stripping and cleaning residual sludge with a saturated solution of TSP in water- there's still a lot of blotchiness to the dry wood here. The second photo shows what the hull looked like after treating with the 2-part Snappy Teak-Nu, washing well, allowing the hull to dry, and then lightly sanding. The hull looks too bright until the first sealer coat of varnish goes on... then the patina of the wood really shows. After such treatment, the hull was very uniform in color- no blotches, stains, etc.
The third and 4th photos below show a test I did on an onld piece of planking from a 90-100-year-old Morris. This canoe was stripped, treated with TSP, and then cleaned and bleached (I think with Te-Ka... this was maybe 9 years ago). All planking was left intact, but then the wood shown here was part of a section removed for replacement. So this wood was already treated once, years ago, after which it sat getting dusty and oxidized. Yesterday, I cleaned and bleached one section with Snappy Teak-Nu, then sanded the entire board with the same grits and pressure, then varnished the lower half. Photo 3 shows a section not treated with Snappy. Photo 4 shows a section treated with Snappy. Because it had already been cleaned/bleached once before, there isn't a big change in appearance, but the newly-treated wood is brighter. Notice, though, that the ridge of paint and varnish that was under the edges of the ribs is still there in photo 3, but the Snappy took that ancient, dried crud right off the wood (photo 4). The two photos of the Morris planking (3 and 4) were made in an identical manner, so color and brightess differences are real- not an artifact of photography.
The final photo shows a piece of fresh red cedar, sanded and treated with Snappy Teak-Nu. The right side of the planking was treated (right of the red vertical line); the left side wasn't treated. I put a thinned coat of varnish on the bottom half; the top is bare. No significant change to my eyes!
Apparently Snappy, at least, doesn't affect the color/tone of new cedar. As for old wood, I wouldn't attempt to strip a canoe with one of these products, but they work extremely well for getting stains out of wood and remaining junk off the wood.
Michael
