Request for follow-up (refinishing just gunwales)

[Hungry Jack]

Back in June I posted a question about trying to fix up my gunwales. Here's the post: http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=4557

One of the suggestions was to just spot sand and revarnish. That is very appealing to me because I'm not truly restoring this canoe, plus the canvas is still on. But after trying it, I've found that if I sand enough to get the grey, weathered spots out the result is a spot with raw, unfinished wood. Which stands out just as much as the banged up grey spots. I'm not a woodworker, I'm just a paddler, but it seems to me that if I varnish over this it won't look right at all.

I'm not looking for perfection...in fact I love the old patina complete with the dark spots. But I would like them to be evenly colored and finished. I have found that when I run a wet rag over the parts that I've sanded, the entire gunwale looks great. How do I get that?

Should I sand every square inch of the gunwales?

Would oiling them before varnishing get that dark, rich color I'm looking for? Or are oil and varnish mutually exlcusive?

I am a wary of staining because of trying to match the color. Plus I assume it is irreverseable since stain penetrates?

What combination of sanding, oiling, staining and varnishing should I use?

If you click on this link I've posted a few "before and after" pics that show the gunwales in their current condition and then what they look like after I've sanded a little.

http://gunwalesbefore.blogspot.com/

 

[Dave Wermuth]

try this

try varnishing. should turn out as in the wet rag treatment.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Yep, varnish would be my suggestion and should be fairly similar to the wet-rag treatment. The other advantage to it is that you could always top-coat the varnish with a bit of dark-tinted varnish in any light spots (if needed for a better color match) but not be soaking anything dark down into the wood in the process. The initial coat or two of varnish will act as a clear sealer. This is almost always the method used to produce the fancy color sunbursts seen on guitars. The wood is sealed with clear sealer and then the color is added to the layers above the sealer. It helps keep variations in the grain from soaking up varying amounts of color the way they can when using colored stain. It results in a more even coloring or color distribution and can easily be stripped back to bare wood if you ever need to refinish it, without having to try to extract dark stain from the pores and grain lines of the wood.

 

[Michael Grace]

... but don't ignore the rest of the gunwales. To make them look their best and to prevent your varnish peeling where it will overlie old varnish, you'd do best to lightly sand the entire length of the wales, then varnish the entire length. Only one problem- that mahogany is going to look so nice that you'll then want to refresh the entire canoe!

 

[ebeeby]

... but don't ignore the rest of the gunwales. To make them look their best and to prevent your varnish peeling where it will overlie old varnish, you'd do best to lightly sand the entire length of the wales, then varnish the entire length. Only one problem- that mahogany is going to look so nice that you'll then want to refresh the entire canoe!

+1 on varnishing the entire 'wale. Use only spar varnish, NOT polyurethane. Interlux #90 or Man 'o War are good though YMMV.