Rejuvinating Faded Wood

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Ed
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Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by Ed »

Quick question or a gathering of thoughts....

I know we have often discussed this on and off-list (mainly with Neil), but would nonetheless be interested in any opinions going (especially Neil).

I have got quite a few bits of wood that are rather faded on my Jollyboat, which is being re-built very slowly and due to size has to remain outside under tarps. Just gone grey, mainly due to too long exposure to the air as she was striped of varnish back in the autumn (just before it started raining).

Past experience would suggest that where you can, the only really effective way to clean up faded wood is simply to sand it down to good wood. Where the wood is mahogany, I have done just this and it looks fine.

But other parts are agba veneer and I don't really want to sand them back too far.

In the past I have used two products for bringing wood back to life - but one I have gone right off (Netrol) and the other (HG - Meubeline) I am suspicious of, but can't remember why, hence my asking for opinions or experience.

The product that I used to use and have had very good experiences with in the past is Netrol. I used in on the inside of my Int14 and changed a totally grey area of about 1mSq back to pretty nice coloured wood.

This was after I had been warned by Neil of the problems that he had had using what we both thought was a new formulation......but with the last I had of an old bottle of the original stuff.

Time passed I forgot Neil's advice and bought a new bottle and used that on the Jollyboat. It was a total disaster! To be honest it was just too upsetting to even mention it on the forum. Unless you saw it, you would not believe what it did. I ended up with great patches of grey wood and some horrible grey stains. Some leaving drying marks as the stuff dried out. The decks were in a pretty bad way anyway, but now to all intensive purposes they were just fucked. In the past, I would of used this as a good reason to whip them off and replace, but I just don't have the funds or time at the moment, so as they are basically sound, I will varnish them and put the boat back on water, go sailing and just try and not look down.

So first question: Has anybody else had good or bad experiences with Netrol?

Next question: Neil gave me a bottle of wood restorer made by HG - a german company called Meurbelline (sp?). I think I used this on my Tideway and obviously enough to buy another bottle (or more) of the stuff. But I can't remember what my thoughts were. I 'think' that my opinion was that it worked well for mahogany and darker woods....but not for lighter woods - and not for Agba.....but I can't remember why.

But anybody else had any experience or thoughts - that they can pass on ( or like me - just remember).

Further Question: What other wood cleaners or renovators have people had luck with? I also had another 'Oxalic Acid' based cleaner which I bought in a little packet from a guy at a boat jumble - who if I remember rightly was from somewhere on the South Coast. This was quite good, though nowhere near as effective once I had got home!! Remember this is not to use for localised removal of stains, but simple to brighten up or clean all the agba veneer. I know it can be done, as the original Netrol used to do it so well.....but I don't feel like trying again. I prefer water-based cleaners, but would consider anything if others have had good experiences

Any other thoughts appreciated.

cheers

eib
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Michael Brigg
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by Michael Brigg »

I found that Oxalic acid is good for giving the wood a lighter colour and when used on black wood it will bring these back to a light grey, but I can't thing of anything that brings back the coulor. I guess the greying process has somthing to do with protein and oil in the matrix of the wood and some chemical leeching process removes the essensial elements leaving an oxide (or equivalent) layer of effectively dead even "rotten" wood on the surface of the exposed wood fibres.

Scraping is certainly hazardous on veneer but then again if its a replaceable area like the decks, scrape away, it sounds like a suitable excuse is needed to force a replacement.

Again as it's replaceable perhaps this is one time when you may have to swallow the bitter pill of a wood stain :twisted:

My only other suggestion is to try something a little more gentle than scraping. Think of why flared trousers were the invention of the Navy...
(This takes me back to Naval CCF; No3 uniform code. Flared blue flannel trousers had to be iron with a triple crease to each side and seven (for the seven seas) horizontal creases alternatively back to front.) The flare allowed you to roll the legs up easily when wading in the water or if on all fours scrubbing the deck.

Try using a hard natural bristle scrubbing brush with soap and water. :)
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by MartinH »

Michael Brigg wrote: This takes me back to Naval CCF; No3 uniform code. Flared blue flannel trousers had to be iron with a triple crease to each side and seven (for the seven seas) horizontal creases alternatively back to front.
When I wore a navy blue uniform the horizontal creases were spaced the width of a seaman's paybook. For an average sized sailor this produced the seven creases associated witht he seven seas, but those with long legs had eight and the short a***s only six.

By the way we often speak of seven seas, which ones are they? I can only think of five: N Atlantic, S Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Arctic, or six if you count the Southern Ocean as separate.
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by Garry R »

Mediterranean SEA
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by Nigel »

Reminiscent of a very drunken quiz where one team member insisted that there were only five continents - A, E, I, O & U :) .
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by Ancient Geek »

An old remedie assuming you have all the varnish off is to swab with cold tea its a very good colour restorer.
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by ACB »

(mentioned very cautiously - oxalic acid followed by Colron wood dye?)

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neil
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by neil »

I remember the Netrol experience, gutted about the results at the time. The moral is don't use Netrol near oak. I didn't have the nerve to experiement with it on other woods at the time, but as I'm half way through a major revamp of my workshop into Workshop2.0 I've come across the Netrol that caused the issue along with proper oxalyic acid (one of the constituents of Netrol) and a range of stains (all those little bottles buried at the back of a shelf). I'll do some experimenting when it warms up a bit.

The stain Ed refers to was Hagesan Meubeline Wood Restorer (http://www.hagesan.co.uk/epages/6153438 ... ucts/hag57) and came from a DIY shop with posh Farell and Ball paints and a range of wood products. It worked pretty well.
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Re: Rejuvinating Faded Wood

Post by ACB »

I'm seriously interested in this; a lifetime of owning wooden yachts is no help because for the past 35 years they have been teak built with teak brightwork and that is dead easy. Agba veneers are quite another matter and I need all the help I can get.

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