Brian, you hit the nail on the head: OH-MY-GOSH!
What a little sanding, wiping AND teak oil will do to make old teak look like-new again is damn near astounding and pretty easy. The problem with the oil is that it will not hold up long in the elements and you live in Sandy Eh Go so you get lots of strong sun, salt and water exposure on your exterior teak. I suggest you take your ensign staff and expose it to the elements to see how it will hold up. In the northeast (cooler temp but same salt & water) my exterior teak is looking less than stellar after only 2 weeks to 1 month without re-oiling (interior oiled teak holds up MUCH longer). Your mileage may vary and I am sure you do not have quite as much teak as my old 1967 boat has but this can be a maintenance nightmare UNLESS you actually like doing it. I LOVE oiling teak too after it has been prepped for it (to me these days that means a good scraping with a carpet cutting razor that removes the old varnish mui pronto, and I leave the good looking varnished spots as I am currently re-varnishing). You can even get wet/dry sandpaper and wet sand the wood with teak oil (ugh!). I do not think that you can apply too much oil for the old wood to soak up but to preserve that freshly oiled look under varnish can last a season with not too many more worries. The problem is that varnish needs to be built up with several (read many) coats and everyone has an opinion on this subject. Many books on the subject of varnishing are out there already. Some people like to thin the first coat to some ratio and build up to pure varnish upon successive coats. While this is all good and well for furniture which gets to stay indoors 365 days a year and is probably a good practice, I do not have the time or attention span to deal with this process with all my exterior teak. I know, I know, on the other post I recommended a rub down with acetone but I used teak oil as my last rub before varnishing the toe rail (whose finish always decays first). I recommend varnish because if you like dealing with teak oil you will also like varnish but should expect annual maintenance. There are other finishes that will go over the oil ONLY if you rub down the teak w/acetone like Cetol Natural Teak (3 yr. maint) and even better Bristol Finish (5+ yr. maint). I happen to like the smell of varnish AND the way it looks but do not like the amount of time it takes to deal with all the teak I have, every year, with no help from my partner in the boat (he does electrical work and has a job so it's generally ok). The real problem with exterior teak is that if you want to actually SWITCH finishes, say from varnish to Cetol, you should take ALL the old finish off (in my case: varnish) and start from bare wood. You CAN still oil before using one of the other finishes but you MUST wipe down well with acetone before application to get a god adhesion. Furniture Guy was right about that and a few other things too but his furniture does not stand out in the rain, or does it? I use Interlux Schooner varnish for the exterior teak OVER oiled teak and it can look really nice (for a while). You decide. Glad you tried. Gotta love teak oil and teak!
