Craftsman Style Blog

Tom asks about what varnish to use to artistically color match finish a boat.

I have done a spot repair to the varnish on my small boat. The mahogany plywood deck is about 1 year old and has darkened due to exposure. The areas where I sanded the old finish off are lighter in colour. I would like to somehow overcoat these areas with a tinted varnish to help bring the repaired areas into colour match with the age-darkened areas.

My coating system consists of two applications of clear 100% solids epoxy onto the bare wood followed by “WoodPro”, a sort of varnish finish offered by West Marine to provide UV protection.

Please suggest a tinted varnish or oil-based colour product which I can use to artistically deepen the sandy-tan colour of the new areas. A product which could be applied, dried, then rubbed or otherwise adjusted to improve the match would be best. This colour-correcting layer would be overcoated with several additional layers of Woodpro to protect it from damage. Extreme weathering.