Washing a Traveller

[bobinyeovil]

Hi

I've stripped the wood on my traveller and re-varnished it with Sadalin. I have been using MER to wash it which seems to be stripping the varnish ( as it could have a solvant in it?) I am thinking of just using plain water and MER Polish - any suggestions

thanks

Bob

[ColinP]

Bob,

To the best of my knowledge there is no solvent in Mer (though you might want to contact Mer directly - they should be able to help).

Before you varnished the wood, what was it treated with? If it was oiled, then you do need to remove all the oil, otherwise the varnish won't key into the wood and it will strip off (I'd suggest acetone - if you can buy it nowadays).

Is the Sandalin a polyurathene varnish? - with the sailing dinghy I had I used polyurathene varnish - it's great for impact, but ....
Wood normally has some moisture in it, when it gets warmer, it loses a bit, if it gets cooler it gains some (and it also depends on the humidity).
The result was that there were patches where the varnish just lifted off in flakes/strips etc.

After than, all my dinghies were varnished with a good quality "conventional" varnish and this breathes sufficiently to prevent the varnish lifting.

Colin