Woods for a bright transom

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  • Dusty Yevsky
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2007
    • 943

    #16
    Re: Woods for a bright transom

    Originally posted by Peter Malcolm Jardine
    I think with the right color scheme, walnut would be stunning.
    Walnut is beautiful wood, BUT it has the very undesirable trait of dramatically lightening it's color when exposed to UV. I've got a couple of kayaks and paddleboards that I trimmed with walnut. They are stored indoors but even the limited UV exposure during use has been enough to turn the rich brown to a washed out dun color. And that's with 7 or 8 coats of varnish. Unless it's used in the interior of a boat, it's best used for furniture.

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    • seo
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2005
      • 1925

      #17
      Re: Woods for a bright transom

      I think there's a reason why builders who can choose any wood for brightwork, the Herreshoff, Nevins, Lawley, Derektor, Abeking, Brooklin Boatyard, etc, generally choose mahogany. It's (relatively) easy to come by, (relatively) cheap, its color goes well with many color schemes, it's available in wide widths, it's stable, it doesn't bleach out. It's not a difficult wood to work, and it's not hard to pick out pieces without wild grain that preps well for varnish.
      The disadvantage is that it's common, and people want something more exotic and showy, sort of the way that some people want their Rolls Royce upholstered in python skin instead of the "common" Connolly Leather.
      Whatever wood is chosen, it's good to avoid heavily figured grain which has wide variation of density and color. This might look very gorgeous when it's new and finished in the shop, but it can be very difficult to keep it looking good once it's out in the elements.
      Another aspect to consider is the hardness and regularity of the wood. It has to be hard enough to resist denting. Really soft wood, like cypress, is so easy to dent that it doesn't give a good substrate for a relatively brittle finish coat such as varnish. Wood with large variation between early and late wood, like Douglas Fir, can be quite beautiful, but it often doesn't hold up well.
      I can remember a 28' Herreshof ketch I used to own which had cabin trunk sides made out of Cuban mahogany that was absolutely perfect and regular in grain, except for one small section of wild grain. This one little section was impossible to plane, difficult to scrape, and so much harder than the rest of the wood that it had to be sanded with a long board. It was too hard to take sealer or varnish well. When freshly finished, it was quite beautiful-for about a month. In the end, I graved-in a patch piece out of a scrap of Cuban mahogany with plain, regular, boring grain. It lacked the initial dramatic beauty, but was much more useful in real world conditions.

      Comment

      • Reynard38
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2009
        • 12533

        #18
        Re: Woods for a bright transom

        Agreed. The cypress transom on the Coquina had 3 coats of epoxy prior to 8 of varnish. This toughened things up a bit.
        My sawyer often has some really nice 1\4 sawn Honduran Mahogany on hand for @ $8.50/bf. Unless I find some suitable osage or BL I'll most likely go with it.
        Fight Entropy, build a wooden boat!

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        • StevenBauer
          LPBC member
          • Jan 2000
          • 23277

          #19
          Re: Woods for a bright transom

          I have some black Walnut that you could use, large enough to get your transom from 2 boards. But it sounds like you'd be better off with the mahogany. I'll try to take a pic tonight. The cherry I used in the HumbleBee is holding up nicely...

          Steven

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          • Tom Lathrop
            Senior Member
            • Dec 1999
            • 5305

            #20
            Re: Woods for a bright transom

            Originally posted by Cogeniac
            Brazilian Rosewood.. Now that would be pretty! I think , when I finally build Liz, I'll use that..

            S
            Yes, beautiful material, but where are you going to get it? Brazil has made exports of all but stump material illegal for decades. I recently used my last plank on a cabinet and have only small pieces left.

            The species of wood on a transom is less important than the visual quality of the individual piece. Some mahogany is bland and some is full of fire and looks better than teak in my opinion. Osage and locust are most always bland and uninteresting. Would not consider a soft wood like cypress or cedar for a transom.
            Tom L

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            • MoMan
              Flaccid Member
              • Nov 2009
              • 1062

              #21
              Re: Woods for a bright transom

              I'm considering cherry for my Pathfinder transom, mostly because I have it on hand; I have a nice big 8/4 plank. Other than darkening from UV exposure, are there other disadvantages to using cherry there?
              “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go -- so long as you do not stop.”
              -Confucius

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              • David G
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2003
                • 89688

                #22
                Re: Woods for a bright transom

                Originally posted by Tom Lathrop
                Yes, beautiful material, but where are you going to get it? Brazil has made exports of all but stump material illegal for decades. I recently used my last plank on a cabinet and have only small pieces left.

                The species of wood on a transom is less important than the visual quality of the individual piece. Some mahogany is bland and some is full of fire and looks better than teak in my opinion. Osage and locust are most always bland and uninteresting. Would not consider a soft wood like cypress or cedar for a transom.
                Well... I guess we all have our priorities, but I'd disagree heartily - for the reason I mentioned earlier. I'd rather have a transom that is stable and bland than one that is beautiful and constantly moving and causing structural issues. Of course, it doesn't have to be either/or. One can pic a stable species and a beautiful board or three within that species.

                I'd also disagree about the suitability of softwoods for transoms. Lots of small boats have used them quite successfully. I restored a traditional rowboat from the 40's a while back that had a pine transom and douglas fir lapstrake planking. Both were fully intact - with no checking, splitting, or rot. That may be the oldest such example, but is only one of many I've seen.
                Last edited by David G; 04-24-2014, 10:58 AM.
                David G
                Harbor Woodworks
                https://www.facebook.com/HarborWoodworks/

                "It was a Sunday morning and Goddard gave thanks that there were still places where one could worship in temples not made by human hands." -- L. F. Herreshoff (The Compleat Cruiser)

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                • seo
                  Senior Member
                  • Oct 2005
                  • 1925

                  #23
                  Re: Woods for a bright transom

                  Old-growth white pine, 15-20 rings to the inch, is barely a softwood as we think of it. It's heavy, dense, and hard. In a small boat I think that lots of softwoods might be suitable. For a sizable yacht, mahogany seems to be the default choice, for a good reason

                  Comment

                  • SMARTINSEN
                    Transplanted Yankee
                    • Dec 2006
                    • 10162

                    #24
                    Re: Woods for a bright transom

                    Pulsifer Hampton boats, similar in looks to yours, use quarter sawn white oak.
                    Steve Martinsen

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                    • Lew Barrett
                      Landlocked
                      • Dec 2005
                      • 30035

                      #25
                      Re: Woods for a bright transom

                      Originally posted by Reynard38
                      Agreed. The cypress transom on the Coquina had 3 coats of epoxy prior to 8 of varnish. This toughened things up a bit.
                      My sawyer often has some really nice 1\4 sawn Honduran Mahogany on hand for @ $8.50/bf. Unless I find some suitable osage or BL I'll most likely go with it.
                      You can't go wrong with that. I think the transom should be finished in the same wood as the rest of the brightwork, and there are good reasons teak and mahogany are the most popular selections, especially teak. Teak is the most forgiving wood if it gets away from you a bit, but it's hard to beat the look of high quality Hondo.

                      In my experience, varnished transoms tend to hold up well in regular use: vertical panels seem to me not to lose finishes as quickly as those that are flat to the sun. A good slathering of eight to ten coats seems to hold up for quite a long time in our climate. Teak is easy to make look "as good as new" again, which is why I favor it. It has an edge over mahogany in that respect, I think, but good quality mahogany is just fine. No reason to reinvent the wheel on a boat intended to be used.
                      One of the most enduring qualities of an old wooden boat is the smell it imparts to your clothing.

                      Comment

                      • seo
                        Senior Member
                        • Oct 2005
                        • 1925

                        #26
                        Re: Woods for a bright transom

                        My boat's counter is quite steeply raked, so it never really gets direct sunlight, so I don't think it gets as much UV light, and doesn't heat up. The great problem with this type of stern is of a dinghy getting up close and banging against the counter. This is particularly a problem in my homport, Belfast Maine, where if you get an ebb current running under an afternoon souwester, the waves can be high and almost vertical. With 8' of stern overhand on a 27' wl, she can lift her stern up what seems like 10' above the water, and then slam her stern down when her bow pitches up. If a dinghy gets under there, it will do a lot of damage before Dumbo smashes it into kindling.

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                        • slug
                          Banned
                          • Dec 2012
                          • 8131

                          #27
                          Re: Woods for a bright transom

                          Transoms also suffer. My winter berth has the transom face into the sun...it burns very badly. Many boats use transom covers for storage .on A small craft UV protection should be easy since you have many storage options. Giant squid, great white sharks and drunk tender drivers are more difficult to defend against.

                          Ive not tried it on varnish, but the new Silicium Nano particle UV protectors are very good on paint. Auto parts shops sell them. They are a liquid you mix with distilled water. You spray it on with a windex type bottle then wipe it off with a micro fiber cloth. Permanon is the brand Ive been using...check with an auto shop for brands near you.

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                          • Tom Lathrop
                            Senior Member
                            • Dec 1999
                            • 5305

                            #28
                            Re: Woods for a bright transom

                            Originally posted by David G
                            Well... I guess we all have our priorities, but I'd disagree heartily - for the reason I mentioned earlier. I'd rather have a transom that is stable and bland than one that is beautiful and constantly moving and causing structural issues. Of course, it doesn't have to be either/or. One can pic a stable species and a beautiful board or three within that species.

                            I'd also disagree about the suitability of softwoods for transoms. Lots of small boats have used them quite successfully. I restored a traditional rowboat from the 40's a while back that had a pine transom and douglas fir lapstrake planking. Both were fully intact - with no checking, splitting, or rot. That may be the oldest such example, but is only one of many I've seen.
                            David, my comments were made within the restriction of a beautiful bright transom, not in general. I don't disagree with your comments except that if a transom is to be bright, it should also be beautiful. Otherwise I'd rather have paint. A transom dinged up by dinghys and dock boo boos is not beautiful.
                            Tom L

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