Thread: using spar marine

I have found spar varnish to be an excellent finish for table tops etc., and it comes up a treat when you take the care to rub it out as we have been discussing in another thread.

HOWEVER, I find spar varnish (and most varnishes actually) to be a bit trickier to apply. Everything has to be perfect: small, relatively new tins of varnish, new highest quality brush, well prepared surface, absolutely NO dust anywhere (not even the hint of it)...

I have moved on to using polyurethanes and oils; don't get me wrong -- the varnishes are awesome; I just don't have the patience anymore to apply them.

Regards

do you mean a oil/varnish mix, can you get a hard enough surface with this...i think that if it over natural timber any sort of oil looks great, but over a stained surface some veery hard coating is a must to protect the stain and prevent any were through from everyday use...i also tried the feast watson floorseal to be quite good, and it easy to apply...geting normal poly thined out a little and just wiping it on over a smooth shellac sealed surface works too and as it's a microthin coat dries fast but you use the gloss a bit...

going to give the spar marine a go , think it will be pretty fancy...

La H

La Huerta:

I also love the Feast Watson Floorseal. Easy to apply, fairly clear, and rubs up beautifully. The varnish does have the advantage of being very hard which makes it for high wear areas (e.g. tables). But it is trouble to put on and trouble to refinish.

I find that the Feast Watson Floorseal, for example, while not being particularly scratch resistant, is a tough finish which is easy to apply additional layers as required.

yeh and last time i used floorseal it was a crapy winters day, thee cold temp had no effect on it, would have been impossible to varnish on the day...

what about rubbing it out though, being a softer product that has oils in it should i wait longer to cure before rubbing and would i do this as we have been discussing...

La H

was just on the feast watson site and they say that the floorseal can be used over proofseal, floorseal is super tough, doing the final coat with this may be all that is needed if a more durable finish is absolutly required, without having to do an entire project with the poly

I have not used proofseal before; but I have used floorseal extensively and have rubbed it out successfully as previously discussed. I suspect that it doesn't provide the spectacular "mirror" finish that the varnish gives, but it comes pretty close ... what is your experience?

i found it easy to put on and use and it dries faster but found it to be easy to mark the surface,but it is nice, think it takes a month to fully cure before you should polish because of the oils in it, even the spar marine seems to be slightly soft several days later...

although varnish is harder to apply i found it dries very hard within a day or so...getting some weatherproof today to try out, will be putting it on a coffee table this arvo...at least with varnish you can always add a little tung or linseed oil if you want to make it more flexable and easier to apply and may give the same results as floorseal.

was doing some goooogle research and there is also some marine grade very high quality waterbased poly around that supposed to be very good indeed, dries very fast and is'nt like the cheap waterbased versions available from bunning like the crap cabbots make...not sure wheere to get it though, Target Industries make it in the US.

I must confess I haven't noticed the various rates of drying between varnish and Feast Watson, probably because I usually take a couple of weeks to finish my projects... that is, it usually takes me months to finish a project but only weeks to put on a finish ...

I suppose if I were in the business I would be much more concerned about drying times...!

well not much i can do about drying times either, but i find that anything with oil in it is less effected by the weather and temp, i'd usually put a coat on at the end of the day after a cup of coffee, say about 3-4 o'clock, and it's dry by morn'n so i can put it asside and do cutting or whatever...but witth the warmer season coming i should be able to used a proper poly ok as the night time temp is higher...

just an update...

the spar marine sucks...would'nt set hard enough to rub out, found an old finishes book which actually says it's not meant for that, i guess there right.

i ended up using the feast watson 'weatherproof'...fantastic !!...self leveling, dries fast, brilliant gloss...my choice from now on...

La H

I agree la H - I've had weatherproof on my windowframes for 10 years and it doesnt look like breaking down. I also used it on the "varnished" bits on my boat too and I am very happy with it in terms of ease of application and longevity.
Just a pity that Feast Watson is now owned by a multinational (Orica) rather than a small responsive local company.

La H, do you apply weatherproof directly to your bare timber, and what grade do you sand to before its application?
Thanks

I used feast watson spar varnish on this Letterbox I made.

i stain witth vandyke crystals then 2-3 coats of weatherproof, sanding with what is needed between coats, somewhere between 240 and 400 grit depending on if you get a little dust on the finish, but it's not that critical as long as your 'keying' the current coat for the next...

i sometimes thin very lightly with turps, this just helps it flow better,

it's very good product, brush marks just disapear...!