oil and varnish?

[Peter Plones]

I am considering the use of Deks Olje#1 as an impregnating 'primer'on my 27 ft mahogany lapstrake sailingyacht. The final finishing will consist of bottomcoat/antifouling and varnish ( probably Epiphanes).
I am wondering if the Deks Olje does not prevent the swelling of the planking after the ship is launched again. Does anyone has suggestions?

[DougWilde]

Peter,

I've used Deks, both #1 and #2 and although it may work as a primer, I would not. Rather, I'd pick a manufacturer and stick with their product line throughout. All their products should work with each other (at least within the same line). For instance, I picked Pettit EasyPoxy for the paint on Williwaw and have preceded it with their sanding sealer (over epoxy) and filler/primer. That way one has the fewest surprises.

Doug Wilde

[dickw]

Peter,

I have a friend who uses Deck #1 as an undercoat on his mast before Epifanes. He says it works wonderfully, much beter than using an epoxy sealer or no undercoat. He has done this for years with grand results.

I don't know if using it on the bottom would make the planking swell up at a slower rate, but I think that using a thined bottom paint cote for a first coat is a good idea instead.

[Peter Plones]

Thank you for your reply Dick.
Instead of the combination Deks Olje and Epifanes, I have used the oil based product wich is called Le Tonkinois. At this moment I have applied 3 layers and it looks pretty good.

[Pekka Huhta]

Deks olje 1 will definitely slow down swelling of the planking on an old boat. On a new one it's purrfikt but it might be a long wait to get an old boat swell after the impregnation.

Le Tonkinois is a varnish and at least here up north it works wonderfully. I have used it with raw linseed oil impregnation under it. Have a look on some previous postings by me, that should cover the linseed treatment around here pretty well.

Le Tonkinois benefits very much from the linseed oil or deks olje undercoat and it works with both. I have had some surfaces failed because of no undercoat (impregnation), but for mahogany it might be OK without. It is a bit too thick to penetrate to the wood deeply as raw linseed oil does. But if you already started using it, go ahead and use it as the final varnish.

It is a bit difficult to get a perfect finish with Tonkinois so you might want to use Epifanes or other soft oil-based spar varnish (Italian Rylard is my favorite) as the final coat. Do not use any hard varnish (urethane, polyurethane, or even a hard alkyd varnish) on top of Tonkinois since it is relatively soft and requires a soft finish.

Pekka