Varnish over oil?

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Shady

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I'm just refinishing a mirror dinghy: the old gunwales were pretty rotten, and have been replaced.

The standard treatment is to slap marine varnish on. Having just re-oiled a garden bench, the remaining danish oil in the tin has got me wondering: is there any reason why I can't slap a coat of oil on first, just to add a bit of protection before the varnish goes on? Could always try a test, but just wondered if anyone could advise. Primary aim in this case is functional, rather than attractive. I'd oil, rub down, and then varnish as usual. Any comments?
 
Hi Shady,

I don't have a ready answer I'm afraid. On both WoodCentral and WoodNet there is a gentleman by the name of Bob Smalser that I would consider an expert, both in building and restoring water craft.

I put a link to the recent message thread he posted below. You may want to send him a pm. You can click on his name in the message to get to his contact info, but you will need to register to do so.

WoodNet message
 
Thanks Mike - I've seen lots of his stuff - very good.
 
DW, not quite sure where you're coming from mate? It's not a 'waterproofing' like varnish is, but it's a penetrating finish that will, with liberal application, soak into the wood and provide a degree of water repellency... I just thought it might be a little bit of belt and braces should the varnish develop a crack or blister at some stage.

I've also just checked on the Rustins site - they specifically mention that it can be varnished over, so in the spirit of cheap experimentation, I think I'll give it a go...
 
Hi Shady

It's quite common for 'Murican intarsia workers to oil their finished pieces and spray them with a lacquer such as Deft. What you're proposing isn't very different to that.

Gill
 
Shady, I have put varnish over danish oil successfully. (furniture)
Its thinking that there might not be any preservative effect as regards boat building technique.
( I have built 3 boats in by gone ages)
 
I have varnished on top of Danish Oil on a garden seat made of Iroko, quite successfully after advice that I could from this forum. I used Continental Marine Varnish designed for wooden decks.
This was to recover from a boob: Danish Oil looks great but doesn't give much lasting exterior protection at all.
They said ( and I believe them!) that Danish Oil is after all just a varnish oil mixture and it should work and ....it did.
It wasn't the 2 stage very expensive version for hulls but is quite sticky and flexible. Great for boats but it took ages to harden up adequately to sit on, rather alarming until it "set".
 

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