teak refinishing

[RichJ]

I have spent the "off season" refinishing the interior teak in our O'Day 27. For the most part all is going smooth. The previous owners had painted the bulkheads and used some ultra gloss finish on the rest of the teak. I was able to remove the ultra gloss finish and found some beautiful rich colored teak, which I will either oil or varnish. The removal of the paint on the bulkhead however revealed teak, but a very light color. My question is, can I stain the bulkhead to match or at least come close to the rest of the teak? has anyone done this, if so what stain did you use?thanks for your help...................RichJ

 

[Tom Ehmke]

Refinishing teak

Rich,If you stripped the paint off and the grain of the veneer is open, stain will penetrate and work. If you sanded the paint off, the grain will likely still be sealed and the stain won't penetrate. You'll know when you apply it whether it penetrates or not. When you wipe it out to even out the stained surface, most, if not all, of it will wipe off.When you stain wood that has had the finish stripped off, the stain may not appear the same as it would be if you stained unfinished wood. Do some experimenting and blend the stain to make it lighter or darker to match the teak color you desire.I'm using mahogany to build some storage shelves using r.w.landau's pix as a guide and will blend a teak stain with either a lighter or darker stain that I already have on hand to get a close color match. I intend to use a satin polyurethane to finish the storage shelves. Satin finish seals the stain and makes cleaning the surfaces easier IMHO. I've used satin poly to finish a couple other storage projects and it blends well with the oiled teak in other areas of the cabin, v and quarter berths.Tom