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I have used Bristol finish and sell it at the chandlery where I work. I applied the Bristol finish exactly as the instructions stated and it looked absolutely fantastic when done. Four months later it was starting to fail, I took photos of the problem and e-mailed them to the manufacture ... their reply was that I must have done something wrong in the mixing or application process, I assure you ... the job was done right. Talking to customers that do brightwork for a living (and use Bristol finish when the customer requests it) they believe the problem to be a matter of quality control, one fellow related to me that he had done 2 boats one directly across the canal from the other .. from 2 seperate containers of Bristol finsh. One boat was starting to fail after four months ... the other still looked good more than a year later.
The owner of our store attended a trade show where a representitive from Bristol finish was present, he overheard that rep telling customers that BF was not a varnish as such and therefore could not be directly applied to the wood, it was more of a "topcoat" and should only be applied over a layer of varnish. That's all well and good but it say's no such thing in any of their literature! I also find it curious that in the last two times Practical sailor did their varnish tests, Bristol finish was "unavailable for testing because it was being reformulated".
I'm currently using Practical Sailor's overall #1 pick ... Epifanes ... goes on nicely and looks good ... unfortunately it hasn't been on long enough for me to report on it's longevity.
Bob & Lynn
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