how many saturation coats?

[JT]

And will each coat successively darken the wood? I'd like the overall finish a little darker than it is after one saturation coat. Any chance tinting the epoxy a little would help???

 

[hairymick]

I apply one saturation coat. This seals the wood and any other resin ?additional coats only bond to the resin that is allready there. IMHO.

 

[Jimmy W]

The epoxy that I used didn't seem to darken the wood much after the first saturation coat. I have never tried tinting it. Raka sells pigments, but I'm not sure if they would do what you want. They might make the epoxy too opaque. The Pettit Flagship varnish is said to be darker than their Captains varnish and several coats of that might give you what you want.

 

[TK1]

Hi,

The epoxy I use (Bote Cote, an Aussie brand that's simply sensational) doesn't darken the wood much. I think others are the same.

The best idea is if the boat is oging to be natural wood, to look at the varnish you'll use. You can get completely clear varnish which will give you a natural, light coloured wood, but also ones designed to be "amber" or "warm" as well as tinted varnishes. The amber ones (I do't think this is the correct term!) give a subtly darker, deeper wood colour without actually tinting.

Check with a marine chandlery and ask what they recommend for a deeper wood colour or tinted varnish.

Hope this helps.

Darren

 

[Tor]

Hey JT,

One saturation coat up to 3 to fill the cloth and it doesn't darken much beyond the fist coat. As you should (have to) varnish the epoxy to protect it from the sun the polyurethane varnish may take the tint better than the epoxy. I've read a number of posts not recommending tinting the epoxy and you'd need to match each batch to get an even colour.

Tor

 

[JT]

Thanks for the ideas. I hadn't thought about the varnish layer.