Cetol or Wood Oil

[keano]

Hi,

I am looking to treat the toe rail and rub rail on my boat and have three possible options in mind:

Wood Oil
Cetol
Armada

Can anyone give me some advice about what is best to use in their experiences and why?

cheers

keano

[Gallivanters]

I'm certainly no expert, but...

I have come to like a wood oil called "DEKS OLJE" (sp?) because it looks good, it's easy to apply, easy to maintain and lasts several seasons with minimal effort.

You start with #1 which you keep applying until the wood can no longer absorb it. Then you rub out the excess. Beautiful. You can leave it at that, or apply a few coats of #2 on top of the #1 which is a harder glossy finish. It looks like varnish.

To maintain the finish indefinitely - you simply hose off any salt give it a light sanding, rub on some #1 with a rag... followed by another coat of #2 if you prefer the gloss.

Easy.

My Two Cents...

Kirk

[rtbates]

I've had good results with teaqua oil. It's water soluable and a breeze to apply. I spent 4 weekends removing all the Cetol from my Cape Dory 25D's teak and a few hours applying three coats of teaqua.

www.teaqua.com


Randy Cape Dory 25D Seraph

[keano]

Thanks for that it looks pretty good. Why did you fell it necessary to move away from Cetol? I've heard it is pretty good stuff. I'm lookin for low maintenance in particular as I prefer to use my boat for sailing rather than not.

[Alan Wheeler]

Take Linceed oil and WD40 and mix it 50/50. Apply liberaly to your timber till it absorbs no more. Allow to soak in, over night best, and then a wipe down with a rag to remove any excess Linceed oil.
In a few months if the timber is looking a little light on oil, you simply spray WD40 on the timber. Nothing else.
It's simple and looks great.
I have used many very expensive timber oils now. Deks Olja being one of them, at NZ$50/ltr here. I used the No1 and I got about 3 months out of my hatches. The trick to many of the oils especially Deks Olja is to keep applying till the tmber takes no more. But it takes a lot of oil and it aint cheap. I tried my 50/50 mix 10months ago now, on my boarding platform and it still looks good. My Teak hatches looked very sad after just 3months. So I have sprayed all of those with JUST WD40. They come up real smart and have lasted a month so far. A spray can of WD40 made it a very quick and easy job to do.
I will continue to monitor the situation and report. But I have been so happy with the outcome so far, I have just applied the same to a friends rubrails I have made up for his steel boat. It is Fijian Mahogany and the finish is stunning.
I take some photo's of the hatches and post them in the weekend.

[ssullivan]

All of the above are great. We oiled our interior teak, and use Cetol on the exterior. It really all comes down to your choices: Pick your poison.

Cetol: Strong, lasts a few seasons, but needs to be sanded
Oil: Must be applied often, but is a very simple application, especially the way Wheels does it

I am a big fan of oil. Boiled linseed and turpentine mixed 50/50 has worked fine for me where I want some gloss. Straight Teak oil on teak that I do not want glossy (Belaying Pins etc.) It does need to be applied on a regular basis, but I hate sanding far more than, well, anything (except maybe politicians). When the oil starts to get dingey or starts to build up, a good citrus wood cleaner will clean it up.

[keano]

thanks very much for all of your feedback. I have been reading a copy of the boat painting guide from Interlux and have decided to go with the Cetol. It does say that you do not have to sand between coats. this looks like the low maintenance option to me - especially if I can get more than one season or even just 18 months out of it.

I understand that they are bringing out a new lighter colour with increased UV protection, and so I will wait for this one.

[hellosailor]

Wheels-
"Take Linceed oil and WD40 and mix it 50/50."
Better and cheaper as Kai Nui says to use *boiled* linseed oil & turps. Linseed oil which has not been boiled will oxidize and turn into black gunk. That's OK for window glazing putty, maybe, but not wood trim. And WD-40 is mainly "petroleum distillates" aka kerosene, sold cheaper by the gallon here.<G> Real turpentine is also expensive...but it is after all "wood spirits" that are extracted from trees. I don't know if it soaks back in any better than lemon oil or teak oil, but it still seems to outperform mineral-based paint thinners on oil paint cleanups for me.

Keano-
Treating your teak is a bit like religion and politics, except, you don't get to wear colorful badges and hats at campaign time.<G> Stuff like Cetol and Armada is basically a sealant (like varnish or paint) that goes over the wood to protect it. Oils and Dek Olje are pentrants, to go into it and attempt to mimic/replace the natural oils to protect it, while allowing some aging, i.e. the natural roughening of teak that makes it a nice anti-skid as the softer grain is worn down a little.

http://www.flood.com/NR/rdonlyres/7A...jecombined.pdf

The Deks Olje MSDS (I read too much<G>) say that part#1 is 99% oils/solvents with less than 1% of some magic cobalt ingredient and Part#2 is a similar mix.

Woodworkers have similar disagreements about oil-vs-wax-vs-polish on fine furniture. Personally...once you start applying a "coating" of any kind, either you keep it up mercilessly, or you wind up having to strip and recoat, and I have no patience for endless sanding. I'd rather oil it and let the teak age. Or, replace it with plastic.<G>

[rtbates]

Because Cetol, like ALL wood COATINGS, will eventually fail and lift. This will allow moisture to get under and degrade from the bottom out. Total removal is the only answer. Now, with Teaqua being 100% IN the wood there is NO surface coating that can/will fail. It degrades by getting lighter FROM THE TOP DOWN. So any repeat application is simply soaking more oil into the wood. Any and all excess is wiped up before it dries.

It's not your father teak oil!

randy

[Alan Wheeler]

Hellosailor, Yes boiled Linceed Oil is what I use. I should have stated that. I use WD40 because there is a little more in it than JUST the petro distillates. It has a good UV stabiliser in it. I have a friend that was behind the development of the stuff and he told me it was excellent on it's own as a wood oil. So hence the mix I use. However, turps should work equally as well, but the only advantage is that it is acting as a solvent to allow the Linceed oil to penatrate the timber deeper. WD40 is doing exactly the same, but with the added "secret ingrediants". ;-)

[GordMay]

Remember to keep WD-40 (or any petroleum-based product) away from Polycarbonate and clear Polystyrene plastics.

[hellosailor]

A UV stabilizer in WD-40?! I guess that's part of the mysterious <10% at the end of the list. What, to prevent my hinges from getting sunburned while they squeak? I had no idea there was so much agic in every bottle.<G>

Aliphatic Petroleum Distillates (Stoddard Solvent)
Petroleum Base Oil

LVP Hydrocarbon Fluid 64
(Carbon Dioxide)
Non-hazardous Ingredients <10%

And here I thought that aerosol sunblock had only just hit the market last year!<G>

[Alan Wheeler]

I had told the wee story here a few years back. So I will again. In my previouse and actuall career, I was working with some of the top physics guys' from around the world. A couple being with NASA. One has become a good friend over the years. Anyway, the NASA team had a dilema of storage of certain satillite equipment before it was placed into space. They needed a protectant to coat onto components. But the issues they had were many and ruled out all of the common off the shelf Moisture dispersants and protective films. So they started trying to develop their own. WD-40 is the simple short description of Water Dispersant trial No.40. Apparently they had trials beyound 40, but the 40 formulae seemed to be the best. So it was never designed as a "task specific" product that products like CRC 66 etc are. They then sold the formulae to a production company to have it made for them(as I understand it).
But quite by trial, the guy's found it did things beyound what they originaly intended the formulae to do. And so they held a compitition open to the public to find uses for the stuff. I guess people just tried it on everything they could and many supposedly successful results were returned.
So I have always had a slight favoring toward the product and have also used it in many wierd and wonderful ways.
Now, it is quite possible that many other Water dispersant products out there do the same or very similar things. I have no proof that WD40 is any more special than anything else on the market. All I know is what it was originaly developed for had some mission specific requirments that had to be meet. One major was it could not explode in an oxygen rich environment. I wonder if that is why the CO2 is added. I couldnt' work out how they could controll burning of a petroleum base product. Hmmmm, must test it and see if it burns or not.
The other was short term UV stabilisation of certain components. How long that lasts I have no idea. I wouldn't go spraying it all over for that summer tan.

[hellosailor]

Wheels, the Co2 is just there as a propellant. No idea if it always was CO2, or simply if they've chosen that instead of butane/propane which some other companies have used since that handy dandy freon was pulled.

http://inventors.about.com/od/wstart...a/WDFourty.htm says:
"WD-40 was invented in 1953.
According to the company that makes WD-40: WD-40 literally stands for water displacement 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who helped develop WD-40 back in 1953. Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion, a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's persistence paid off when he perfected the formula for WD-40 on his 40th try.
Rocket Chemical Company

WD-40 was invented by the three founders of the Rocket Chemical Company of San Diego, California. The team of inventors were working on a line of industrial rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry. WD-40 was first used to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile from rust and corrosion. Norm Larsen repackaged WD-40 into aerosol cans for consumer use and the product was sold to the general public in 1958. In 1969, the Rocket Chemical Company was renamed after its only product WD-40."

The company seems to be claiming it was not NASA that invented it. NASA supposedly became operational in 1958, five years after WD-40 was in production.