Over the past approx four months I've been slowly designing and building myself a replacement telescope tripod, with extending legs formed from planed Oak battens. This is easily the most ambitious wood working project I've attempted, especially in terms of my quality goals. I have been learning a lot along the way, and fortunately thus far everything has largely worked out as expected. I've got the stage where I'm thinking about how to best finish the wood, and there are so many possible options with pros and cons to consider, that I'm struggling to come to a good decision.
The majority of usage of the tripod will be at night time in dry conditions, but there are evenings when there is heavy dew, or even frost, which settles on my current steel tripod. So a water resistant/repellent finish looks like a must have, but it is not likely to have prolonged heavy exposure to water/rain like outdoor furniture would (famous last words). There will be some day time usage for solar observing, but not for more than a few hours a month on average, so UV protection is nice but doesn't look critical. In general I'd like to stay close to the natural pale colour of the oak, with a matt finish.
Does anyone have recommendations for a finishing approach that is suitable for this application with oak ? Most accounts I've read of wooden tripod construction have finished with boiled linseed oil, tung oil & similar, sometimes with a wax top coat, or alternatively a solvent based polyurethane varnish. Are any water based varnishes going to be a workable option, or is an oil based finish or solvent based varnish the most sensible route here ? If the latter, then I'll have to delay until I can travel to use my father's workshop, since my working space at home is the back garden during fine weather spells only!
The majority of usage of the tripod will be at night time in dry conditions, but there are evenings when there is heavy dew, or even frost, which settles on my current steel tripod. So a water resistant/repellent finish looks like a must have, but it is not likely to have prolonged heavy exposure to water/rain like outdoor furniture would (famous last words). There will be some day time usage for solar observing, but not for more than a few hours a month on average, so UV protection is nice but doesn't look critical. In general I'd like to stay close to the natural pale colour of the oak, with a matt finish.
Does anyone have recommendations for a finishing approach that is suitable for this application with oak ? Most accounts I've read of wooden tripod construction have finished with boiled linseed oil, tung oil & similar, sometimes with a wax top coat, or alternatively a solvent based polyurethane varnish. Are any water based varnishes going to be a workable option, or is an oil based finish or solvent based varnish the most sensible route here ? If the latter, then I'll have to delay until I can travel to use my father's workshop, since my working space at home is the back garden during fine weather spells only!