Staining plywood before epoxy coating

As i look through the gallery of pics of the n,e dory i was wondering if it is possible before sealing the inside of the boat with epoxy can you stain the inside of the boat with lets say minwax type product to bring out the grain of the wood. Will the epoxy take to it, or have a bad reaction. Thank you in advance for any input.


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RE: Staining plywood before epoxy coating

   Read this, it applies to kayaks but would be same for any S&G construction:  http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/finishing-tips/staining-your-kayak.html

In the article, Nick Schade states that you can't use oil based stains like Minwax.

The other issue is that you want to stain pieces before gluing together.  Once you put things together, any wood covered with epoxy will not obsorb the stain.  If you have already assembled the boat, you may want investigate the use of tint in your epoxy.  I have never used it but one of the pofessional builders that I follow uses tinted epoxy regularly.

I have used Behlin stain on two boats (Petrel Play and Shearwater Double) and really like the results.  In both cases, I stained the wood and covered with one coat epoxy prior to assembly.  The epoxy evens out the color and protects it a bit during assembly.  After assembly but prior to glass, I repaired the color where needed with a little stain on a Q-Tip.  One lesson that I learned the hard way is that dryed stain not coated with epoxy will wick a little when you wet glass out over it.  Not a big deal if the area is in the middle of a stained panel, but it will make the line between stained and unstained panels look fuzzy.  Lastly, after a couple of years in use, I notice that surface scratches in varnish/epoxy are much more visible on dark stained sections than they are on unstained okoume. 

Shearwater Double with hull stained with Behlin Cherry to contract the okoume shear and sapelle deck.

Petrel Play with Behlin Red

 

RE: Staining plywood before epoxy coating

   The water base minwax stain works just fine with epoxy.  On wone ocassion I use the stain, mixed in the epoxy with satisfactory results.  The satain will not work if applied on top of the epoxy.  For what its worth I have also use the MINWAX Helmsman spar Urethance for protective cover over the expoxy with good results.  It has workedf so far on the last three crafts in fresh water.

RE: Staining plywood before epoxy coating

   That stained Petrel Play is very unique and pretty!

RE: Staining plywood before epoxy coating

   Thanks all for the feedback, great information. The article link posted by Sun says it all.

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