Varnish

Photo: using a Q-tip to varnish the inside of a hole.

Ahh, varnish.  Being a sailor and boatbuilder I love the look and the smell of varnish.  I love what it does to the wood  A good varnish job gives your wood a beautiful honey glow, and it's functional too, varnish preserves the wood and protects it from damage.

Half of the art of varnishing is sanding.  Start with a 120 or 150 grit sandpaper on the raw wood.  Don't use an electric sander or a sanding block.  Use your hand.  Tear the sheet of sandpaper into 4ths and then fold each 1/4 sheet in half and then half again until you have a approximate 2in by 2in pad of sandpaper.  Sand with one side of your sandpaper pad until it loses effectiveness, then turn it over and sand with the other side until that side is worn out...then unfold and repeat until all four sides are used. 

Sanding is a two handed job: the right hand moving the sandpaper over the surface while the left hand comes along behind feeling the surface for smoothness and missed spots.  Use a very, very light touch.  Do not attempt to remove wood.  The idea is to only smooth the surface and you should be kicking up just very little fine dust.

After sanding the raw wood, remove the dust with a tack cloth and then apply the first coat of varnish.  Thin the first coat with about 25% mineral spirits so it will be readily absorbed into the wood.  I use a traditional spar varnish for the first two coats.  Traditional varnish takes a long time to dry, all the while soaking into the wood.  And spar varnish gives your wood a beautiful color, a nice warm glow. The second coat can be full strength spar varnish, and the third coat should be an epoxy varnish.  Using the spar-spar-epoxy combination gives excellent protection to the wood and a beautiful finish.

Use a good varnish brush..(they are expensive, don't cheap out on your brush).  A good brush is very soft and has a really decadent feel to it.  If the hardware store guy won't let you take it out of the package and feel it before buying, just walk away. 

After the first coat is dry (overnight).  Sand, very lightly again, with a 220 sandpaper.  Remove dust with a tack cloth.  Brush on the second coat of varnish.  Let dry.  Sand with 320 sandpaper.  Tack cloth.  Then brush on the third and final coat.  Resist the temptation to add more coats of varnish.  Three coats is just right:  protects the spar, looks very nice, but not too heavy.

Don't forget to varnish inside all those holes you drilled and be sure the ends of the spar get a good coating too.

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