20250707

New Oars for Hatseflats Part 2

Updated 11-07-2025

Normally I would coat all wood with 3 coats of epoxy followed by 3 coats of two-pot polyurethane paint (marketed as DD paint by PolyService and De Ijssel Coatings). So it was a change to paint the new oars with a varnish from Epifanes. Why? The oars are expected to flex a little bit so we need a slightly elastic surface finish. Apparently more flex than in the hull and decks. In the long term, this may lead to cracks in the epoxy and painted surfaces. We don't want that, so bring on the varnish!

I was prepared to let the epoxy cure for 14 days but since the temperature in our garage did not drop below 25 degrees for the next week, Joost argued that I could paint the bare wood on the looms straight away and leave the epoxy on the blades to cure for a couple of days instead of the full two weeks.

Thursday 3 July

I sanded down the looms with 120 and 150 grit paper and applied the first coat of varnish. I used 40g of varnish diluted with 20g clear spirit. The varnish went on like water and I used only a tiny amount of the mixture. I washed out the brush with clear spirit and covered up my bowl with mixture with a used nitrile glove.

Friday 4 July

Sanded the looms with 240 paper and added second coat with the remaining mixture of 3 July.

Saturday 5 July

Sanded the looms with 240 paper and added third coat with the remaining mixture of 3 July.

Sunday 6 July

Sanded the blades with 120 grit paper, 150 grit paper, followed by 220 grit paper. Sanded the looms with 240 paper. I ran out of time and only varnished the outsides of the spoon blades (layer #1). Created new mixture of 60g of varnish and added 10g of clear spirit.

Monday 7 July

Sanded the insides of the blades and the looms with 220 paper (layer #1) Varnished looms and insides of blades with mixture of 6 July.

Tuesday 8 July

Sanded the outside of the blades with 240 paper. Varnished outsides of blades with mixture of 6 July (layer #2).

Wednesday 9 July

Sanded with 400 grit waterproof paper. Varnished looms (layer #5) and insides of blades (layer #3) with 25g undiluted varnish (which was just enough!).

Thursday 10 July

Sanded outside blades with 400 grit waterproof paper and varnish outsides of blades (layer #3) with undiluted varnish, straight out of the can.
Cut two pieces of 25x16.7cm for the leathers and two strips of 15mm x 50cm for the cuffs (or buttons).

Friday 11 July

Sanded looms and blades with 400 grit waterpoof paper and varnished looms (layer #6) and blades (layer #4). Leathering the oars is the last remaining task, planned for Saturday 12 July.