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I am going to re-teak the wood on my montauk. I have talked to quite a few people and they like the commercial product called Starbright. I agreed with them as well, Just wondering if anyone thought anything else.

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Re-teaking the wood? The wood is already teak. Are you going to re-oil or varnish the wood?

Starbright (starbrite) is not really a commercial grade product it can be found at any marine store. However, I would not recommend the starbrite teak oil. Use Belhem Teak Oil it is the best by far.

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I agree. I recommend using a quality teak cleaner and then using a high-quality oil, such as Belhem, as mentioned, or my favorite, Amazon's Teak Oil - available through the West Marine catalog and in stock at certain stores.

Starbrite teak oil, in my opinion, is not the best stuff, although I have some and have used it from time to time when in-between bottles of Amazon's.

Was the teak in your boat varnished or just oiled before?

DO NOT pressure wash the wood to clean it - use a soft, short bristle brush and go against the grain with a cleaner or brightener product. rinse thoroughly and re-apply if necessary.

If the wood is in really bad shape, you may need to do some gentle sanding.

Good luck.

Dave

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Varnish.
4 or 5 coats...(the more the merrier)...will provide maximum UV resistance.
After that 1 or 2 coats each year.

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I have an 84 montauk and the teak was varnished before I got it. The teak with the varnish looked horrable. I dont' know how long it was before it was varnished but you would have to reapply every year. I have been sanding for the past 2 months trying to get the teak to look right. I started with 60 grit the 100 the 150 then I'm putting oil one it. I got the strabrite just because I hear good things about it. The end product looks awsome. I dont' like the shiny varnish look and I diddnt' see it holding up in the Florida sun.

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Mine is also 84. And i do not know if it was varnished or not. All i cared about when i got it was if the motor ran or not, because frankly i was looking into getting a flats boat for down here. Somebody told me to use 120 grit sand paper, and i have starbright in house right now so i beleive i will try that the first time. Jeff, where can i find the belhem oil at ? . Is it just the oil that i will need, will starbright cleaner do alright for the cleaning aspect of it.

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yet another method. i worked at a boatyard for a bit and the method used there seemed to work very well, leaving customers of very nice boats/yachts pleased.

We used tide floor cleaner mixed with water and scotch brite pads. with lots of water use the pads to clean WITH the grain. keep the fresh water to it till you are done. this process brings the teak back to looking new, NO teak oil was used. it really does look great and is simple. keep in mind we were doing this to some pretty expensive boats... Hinckley Picnic boats, Shannon sail boats, antique Egg Harbors, Stanley and on goes the list.

Best of luck,

dana

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thanks guys for all the replies, dana - so you just pretty much cleaned it ? would i be able to do the oil part of it also ?

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I respectfully disagree. Scrubbing wood with the grain erodes the soft parts of the wood, leaving the raised grains standing tall, increasing the need to sand more frequently.

It is faster, but not good for the wood.

You should not leave your teak unfinished. Yachts leave their decks unfinished, but brightwork (teak accents) are all finished either with oil or quality marine Varnish.

Once your wood is prepped:
If Oiling: You need to apply several coats of oil - really saturate the wood and gently buff the oil into the wood.

Re-apply as needed.

Varnish requires more prep work and additional coats for a good finish, but requires less maintenance afterwards (i.e. one or two coats a year on top of a good 8-10 coat base, vs. oiling every several months).

Both require maintenance and are a big part of why you don't see much wood on many boats (including yachts) anymore.


Again, Starbrite is fine in a pinch, after all, a lesser quality finish is better than no finish - and with oil, you need to re-apply as necessary anyway, so switching over to a higher-quality oil later is not a big deal, and substituting a lesser-quality oil in a pinch or because it's what you already have on hand is not a big deal either. The biggest deal is keeping a finish on the wood to protect it from weathering.

Good luck.

Dave

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Ok. The wood is pretty nasty right now. I am thinking that it is going to take some time, scrubbing, and sanding to get it to look nice. I kick me own ass for leaving it off as long as I have.

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chefpatterson,

you can apply teak oil after a good cleaning.

when i first began with the yard (a reputable one mid coast ME) i would have said the same thing dave said. in fact it was torture when i was first asked to use their scotch brite method, after seeing the results i was very much impressed.

with all this said i am no teak expert. but would suggest trying several methods on the bottom side or your teak. dave has valid concerns and trying several methods will let you find the one best suited for your application.

dana

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Chef,

I have no idea about Dana's method other than the pros and cons people talk about.

I tried to use the starbright cleaner and brightner and it just did not work for me.
Anytime you wet the wood, the grain does raise...

The method I used is basically just how you would originally make any wood parts...
Cut them and then sand them.
Of course our parts are already cut so we should sand them for the best job in my opinion.
Just like the new parts were handled in the beginning.

Here is an article I did for the restoration of all my teak parts....
http://www.whalercentral.com/readarti...icle_id=31

Here is a restoration I did on an RPS seat back. I have done several of these.
The grain was raised so bad on this that it was much to rough anyway. Cleaning it would not get rid of the raised grain, only worsen it.... Sanding is the only way to get it smooth again.
http://www.whalercentral.com/photogal...p?album=63

I ended up using Starbright Premium Gold teak oil but I have heard there are much better brands to buy.
I might even try SeaFins teak oil next time...

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I have had good luck with Dally's SeaFin Teak Oil, and using wet/dry sandpaper while the wood is still wet. John

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Hey guys, thanks very much for the input. Right now i just did what i had on hand, just a regular cleaning, brightening, and oiling. I didnt sand or anything, Once i get better oils, i will sand but for now it was soo bad it was gray and now it actually looks like teak. what exaclty does varnishing do to teak ?