: Based on your recommendations, and after reading some posts on the
: woodenboat forums, I have ordered Rebecca Whittman's
: "Brightwork" book. I have also decided that a heat gun
: and putty knife might be better for removing varnish than a
: chemical stripper. With bare wood, I'll hit it with oxalic acid,
: and then maybe some chlorine bleach to even out the color.
: (Didn't have much luck with the chlorine bleach on the old GP,
: so maybe oxalic acid first will help. Wary of a 2 part
: bleach...) Finally, I think I'll break with family tradition,
: and use brown mahogany stain rather than Grandad's old red
: mahogany stain. Ephiphanes varnish seems like a winner. I'm very
: curious about Coelan, I know it's an excellent coating for nylon
: skins, but I don't think it will give brightwork that rich amber
: luster that varnish will. 8 coats of varnish later...

: Will spend the rest of the summer sailing, and looking for a place
: I can store her for the winter to get into this awful varnish
: mayhem...

: Oh, right, and tonight I go look at the boat, possibly buy her... I
: should probably buy her first!

: Brian

I still prefer chemical strippers for varnish. I much prefer Star10, but it's kinda a pain to get. The citrus strippers work well enough and are easy to get. It's awfully easy to gouge up the deck with it's broad flat surfaces with a putty knife that makes it awfully difficult to get a nice looking varnish job afterwards.

Varnish, for fast work, Pettit's Easy-Poxy varnish will allow a complete job with 5 coats. For museum finishes (I'm picky) I prefer Interlux's Jet Speed for the initial coats as you can often apply 2 or sometimes 3 coats in a day and don't have to sand between coats, good when you're building up the surface. Then any of the finish varnishes will work for the final coats. If you're after the perfect job the total number of coats can easily be 15 with the final finish varnish used for the last 4 or 5 coats wet sanded between coats. Btw, this takes some time, allow a month. It's also why I recommend Easy-Poxy :)

Btw, never dry sand varnish, leaves scratches deep enough that the next coat of varnish won't fill them completely, only wet sand and I prefer 220, any finer and there isn't enough tooth for the next coat to bond to. Also while wet sanding you can easily see what's been sanded and what you missed, darned hard to do with dry sanding. Get a 5 gallon bucket and visit a automotive paint supply house, they make a tray that fits the top of these buckets to hold the sandpaper, sponge and squeegie (you need that to get rid of the water quickly so you can find places you missed while sanding).

Bill H.