Fine Woodworking had a comparison test in issue 205. They had sample
boards made up with various finishes and had them sent to Salem Oregon
(town is was born in), Albuquerque, N.M., Bridgeport, Conn., and New
Orleans, La., where they were outdoors for 1 year.

The preferred finish was a combination of Smith & CO. Penetrating
Expoy Sealer (3 coats) under Epifanes Marine Varnish (5 coats), or
just the Epiphanes Varnish alone (7 thinned coats). Note that in 2009
the Epifanes was $45/qt, and the Smith Epoxy was $42/qt. Or
vice-versa.

The other testees, Oil (Watco Exterior), and other exterior varnishes
(Zar Exterior Poly and McClosky Man O War spar varnish), didn't come
close to this combination.

Note that one conclusion of the test was that water damage was more a
problem than UV damage.

Jim



On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:37:13 -0700 (PDT), Rob Hanson
wrote:

Greetings!

It has been years since I've been on rec.woodworking! I wonder if some of the old names are still here?

Question out of desperation -- a blend of 'woodworking' and large-scale finishing:

I have a high-value client who did an extensive renovation on their house a few years ago. (I did their walnut floors with a fine shellac and wax finish... killer.) But, on the exterior of this house/mansion, there are extensive amounts of wood beam, decorative features, and panels. The client is no longer happy with the look of the finish done during restoration (I didn't do it); parts are sun-faded, and she wants to take everything down to the original wood for a more natural-looking finish. Lots of mahogany, I think, hard to tell, because...

... All this wood was finished with some crappy looking, dark walnut, oil-based stain, perhaps MinWax. I have no clue how to remove that stuff, or if it has penetrated so deeply that it'll never come out. I'll be going there on Saturday to excavate a few areas to see how deep it runs. Sanding? Sandblasting?

I can likely secure a crew to do sanding and scraping. In my usual one-off woodworking, I favor a natural look such as we get from shellac. We'd want to avoid any finish that a) fades too much in the sun, or b) obscures the look of the original wood, and c) will last a good, long time.

What finish might be recommended for this exterior application? Are we relegated to only standard commercial products, like Behr, etc? Is there any shellac that is suitable for exterior application?

The client says, "This WILL be done," and I'm sure she means it. I just need to know which direction to go in.

Thanks for any insight or pointers!

Rob