HMG Varnish

We began the process of removing all the oil from the interior wood. Our boat was comprised of 2 wood surfaces; teak and mahogany. We used paper towels saturated in Alcohol, and Acetone to remove what oils we could. Then we sanded with 80 grit paper till 90% of the oiled wood was removed and then moved to 120 for finishing. At times W/ would sand with 180 or 220 but mostly this didn't save any time.

During this time of stripping we tested out 3 varnishes. One was a paint store Exterior Gloss and the other was a yacht varnish like Epiphanes. The yacht varnish darkened the teak so much we immediately discarded it. The hardware store varnish we liked so I varnished a piece of mahogany the way we wanted it to look and I put the piece in the dishwasher for approximately a month. After a month I looked at it and the varnish looked good. So we began by putting on the hardware store varnish.

This lasted for about 3 months and after which we began to notice a light haze over the varnish. We wiped it off with Alcohol (it was one of the solvents) and a few days later the haze was back. I wasn't happy. We had now about 4 large panels completed with this varnish so we stopped by the paint store and asked the manager. He said that the haze is the UV protectant. In my mind this wasn't acceptable.

Even though this varnish is in the interior of the boat we wanted a high UV protecting varnish. On boats, light ends up going everywhere. Even with awnings light comes through our large salon windows, through the hatches, reflecting off any SS, through the ports. We wanted lots of UV protection. We also wanted a varnish that didn't add color to the wood. We wanted the natural beauty and color to show through.

At one of the boat shows we discovered HMG Varnish. I bought a liter and we ran the same test. It was clear and looked fantastic after the dishwasher. Bingo. We ran with it. We sanded the hardware store varnish a bit and applied the HMG on top. You can see the results in our gallery. After 20 years it still looks great. There are some areas of wear but... we do live aboard. It has a year shelf life in the can according to the manufacture and the biggest problem is, here in Australia where we are now, it is cost prohibitive to get.

NOTE: HMG tells me the K type which is what we used is now the 14Line.

Grade A...

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