Subject: Re: [baidarka] Wood Treatment
From: Ryan McNabb (rgmcnabb@CenturyTel.net)
Date: Tue Jun 01 2004 - 08:18:48 EDT
I am a complete novice with SOF kayaks, but I do know a fair amount about
wood and oil finishes, as I am a gunsmith and gunstock carver. Linseed oil
will provide absolutely no water protection, if that's where you're headed.
It is extremely water permeable and will do nothing other than look nice and
smell nice. I don't know what the natives used to treat their frames, but I
always hear it referred to as being red in color. I also don't know how
much real protection they needed, since a cold salt water environment will
inherently be a preservative environment. Frankly, in a salt water
environment, the more salt water the better as far as wood preservation is
concerned. The skin or fabric covering is quite another matter, and one I
can't really address with any knowledge.
Linseed, and any other oil, can indeed be colored, and there are many ways
to do it, but the easiest would be to get an alcohol based "spirit" wood
stain, and use that to tint the oil. If you want to get it to turn red,
like the original frames I referred to, then you'll basically need to make
red oil paint, which is an oil and a pigment, plus other stuff. I don't
think you want to get your own natural earth pigments and grind them into
your oil, but that's what you'd have to do. I guess you could just use red
oil based house paint, and you'd have basically the same thing. This would
actually be a very good protectant to the wood, unlike linseed oil. There
is also a marine paint lovingly referred to as "red lead", which is
basically just a super tough, bright red (almost orange) marine paint that
has (you guessed it) lead in it, but is the bees knees for painting the
insides of bilges in sailboats, and other places that stay wet and need lots
of protection. And as long as you don't eat your kayak frame, you won't get
any lead poisoning from it, I promise you. Red lead is available from some
marine paint dealers. Check "Wooden Boat" magazine. Also check the Kirby
paint company, which is a small family business and has a website, with red
lead as one of their offerings.
Tung oil is an oil finish that is actually a good protectant. It requires
multiple coats, and basically would build up like a very thin varnish.
After 5 - 10 coats, you would see a glossy varnish-like finish building up.
The more coats, the more protection. If the first coats were thinned back a
good bit you would get a bit of penetration and somewhat better
preservation. I don't know if this is what you are after with your finish.
But, as I said, if you are using your boat in the salt, it'll do just fine
as long as you keep the frame good and salty. The fabric, that's another
matter.
Basically, the popular perception of linseed oil as a preservative finish is
an erroneous one. Plus, the stuff never really dries. It's classified as a
non-drying oil, even though in the "boiled" form it does get dry to the
touch. Looking at SOF boat frames, as a novice but one with lots of
experience with wood, the first thing that jumps out at me is that it's
pretty foolish to try to put a protective finish on the frame unless you can
also get finish on the ends of all the members, and in all the mortises,
etc. After all, that's where rot's going to set up, and that's the least
accessible place for a finish to get to. Plus, if you paint it, it's just
going to crack with the inevitable flexing the frame will do, allowing water
in to the very places that aren't protected.
What do more senior builders say about finishes on frames?
Hope this helps-
Ryan McNabb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce C. Anderson" <bcanderson@cableone.net>
To: "baidarka" <baidarka@paddlewise.net>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 6:17 PM
Subject: [baidarka] Wood Treatment
> Howdy
>
> Is there any reason why I shouldn't use Linseed oil to treat the wood on
my
> West Greenland Kayak?
>
> Is there any way to color the oil?
>
> Thanks
>
> See Ya
>
> Have Fun
>
> Bruce
>
> http://myweb.cableone.net/bcanderson/
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