Re: oak rubrails

Posted by Mark Camp on Jun 27, 2004

Oak species tend to be high in tannic acid, which interferes with the curing of epoxy.

It isn't necessarily impossible, but you should research it on the web before using oak. First, because some species are worse than others (I don't recall which, but I vaguely recollect that white oak (Quercus alba) is especially a problem. Don't trust my memory, it is usually wrong)

Second, because there is a proven effective technique to neutralize the acid. Sorry, again you will have to search the web, or Wooden Boat Magazine archives if you can find them: they have addressed precisely this issue in the past. You pre-treat the oak with some household base ("alkali") (ammonia, I would guess?) and you are good to go.

I hope Wooden Boat is not as efficient at deleting their archives as some folks ;-)

In Response to: oak rubrails by mike carlsonscju on Jun 27, 2004

Replies:

• Re: oak rubrails by mike carlson on Jun 28, 2004
  • Re: oak rubrails by Mark Camp on Jul 5, 2004