Varnishing Gunwales

[MarkWoyWoy]

I'm nearly finished my first boat, a lapstrake(clinker)launch.

I have small notched blocks sitting on top of the frames. These blocks are sandwiched between the inner wale, sheer plank and gunwale.

The wales, top of the sheer and the blocks will be varnished with the inside of the hull painted.

My question is on the inside of the sheer plank in between the blocks, should this be painted or varnished? What do people normally do with this?

Thanks in advance

Mark S.

[Venchka]

Similar construction-I opted to varnish the whole sheer strake. Makes it a lot easier than trying to keep varnish and paint apart in all those fiddly places around the gunwale.

[NormMessinger]

Somewhere you will need a line to seperate the varnished wood from the painted wood. Some natural break works best, in my opinion. That break, on the boats I've built the way you describe is where the plywood of the strake meets the wood of the gunwale. In other words, I had to paint behind the inwale. It is fiddley, as Venchka says but with a good brush not all that hard. Varnish first, then paint.

Like so: http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid19/p89e19b8e6b01917ab6b92dd313ad267c/fdc9c6f7.jpg

[ 09-23-2003, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: NormMessinger ]

[L.W. Baxter]

Hey Norm, any particular reason to varnish first? I'm near completing a swampscott dory, and I just masked off all the stuff that will be finished bright. In the "fiddly" places, I was able to paint very easily. I'm hoping to varnish without masking, just cleaning the varnish off the paint with a turpy rag afterwards...Does varnishing first make the process easier? :confused:

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by L.W. Baxter:
Hey Norm, any particular reason to varnish first?'cause when you dribble paint on the brightwork or it gets under the masking tape you can wipe it off with some thinner or worst case scrape it off with a razor blade or sharp chisel.

If you get paint on unvarnished wood, it's the divvel to get rid of all of it. There's always a bit in the pores of the wood. Varnishing first fills/seals the pores and paint will stick to the varnish so if you're a bit sloppy with the varnish it doesn't matter so much.

[MarkWoyWoy]

Thank you ,

I'll probably go the way Norm has gone, albeit is will be somewhat fiddly.

The picture is a great help as I can now visualise the finish.

Mark S.

[NormMessinger]

What Nicholas said. Or if you paint first with epoxy as I usually do I find it easier to see paint on varnish and get it wiped off than visa versa. In the case of the Humble Bee picture above, I didn't try to strike a nice line with the paint at the top of the strake but kept a towel handy with a bit of thinner on it to clean the paint off the gunwale. That wouldn't work well on a flat surface however. Fineline masking tape would then be in order.

[Ed Harrow]

A handy way to clean up goofs when cutting to a line (no cheating with tape, by the way...) paint thinner, rag, and putty knife. Dampen the rag with PT, hold it tightly around the tip of the PK's blade, with dampened part right at the tip and, voila! you can do a fine, no-remaining-mess clean-up job.