How to finish the mast ?

[jimnmad]

I launched my Swampscott dory last year as a rowboat and spent the winter getting the centerboard in, putting on the rudder and having the sail made as well as getting the rigging ready. I have a 13'3" piece of Norway spruce that I have finished round. I also have 2 pieces for the sprit pole and sprit boom. Since I used Deks Olje on the interior of the boat I thought I would use it on these 3 pieces as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Bob Cleek]

Dance with the gal ya brought. If you are wedded to Deks Olje, there's no reason not to use it on your spars. It's good enough stuff, notwithstanding the exaggerations of their advertising, as with all the snake oil salesmen. Really not much better than plain old decent varnish over CPES for spars, actually. Your Deks Olje may even have a little more flexibility than varnish, which will help it survive the banging around that spars are heir to.

[Art Read]

Probably be just fine. Are you planning on using both the #1 and #2? With my own project, I've chosen to use Deks on most of the interior because I just don't want to think about striping tired paint or varnish in there, and previous experience has taught me that Deks "refreshes" easier than most other finishes. With the other high visibility, high wear areas that I can run a sander across without having to negotiate too many "nooks and crannies", I elected to just go with regular, old spar varnish or paint. Spars too. They don't need a perfect "mirror" finish, IMHO, and at least with smallish vessels, don't present a major hassle when it comes time to refinish. My big worry with the oil finish is that it allows the wood to darken faster and deeper than a hard varnish finish. I also suspect a good half dozen coats of real, old fashioned varnish provides more "ding" protection for the softwoods typically used for spars than any number of coats of oil you may put on there. Just a thought...

[Raven 271]

Deks Olje vs Cetol? I am also finishing a small wooden spar and wanted to use something other than varnish.How does Deks compare to cetol?

[jimnmad]

So far I have just used the #1. I have used it all over the inside of the boat and have re-done a couple of places with good results. It is my understanding that one of the selling points of Deks is it isn't supposed to darken with time. Although this boat has been stored in the shop, after a year the wood still looks bright. And as I have re-done spots it seems to match up well. I'll use #2 in all of the more accessible high wear areas. And, I think I will use #2 on the mast and poles.