Re: Staining panels diffe

Posted by David Warren on Aug 8, 2006

Stain must be applied on clean wood. Epoxy and varnish etc won't allow the stain to penetrate the wood. So, it is a necessary to stain the wood before you do any gluing. Problem is, any scracthes you put on the stained wood while you cut and assemble the boat will affect the finish too. What some folks do is stain the wood, then quickly give it a thin 'sealing' coat of epoxy prior to cutting etc. This raises several of its own problems: the epoxy-covered wood is more difficult to cut and bend, and the later assembly, gluing onto the hard coating, will not produce such a strong bond.

My opinion only, but it's probably better to pick naturally contrasting wood shades, or limit your staining to one or two significant bits which are worth the trouble...

Another alternative is to assemble the boat, then use stain-tinted varnishes over the epoxy coat. This usually does not look nearly as good as properly stained wood though. .

In Response to: Staining panels different by Andrew Sommer on Aug 7, 2006

Replies: