Howie
Wooden Canoe Maniac
I'm in the process of stripping a Penn Yan Scout, and I'm having a lot of trouble getting rid of the old varnish. I say varnish, but I'm starting to think it's epoxy! Maybe one of you can enlighten me as to what it is.
The canoe had the cedar-ish tint usually found on Penn Yans so I assume it was the original finish. After cleaning up with a hot TSP wash it didn't look too bad, but there were several scratches that showed aged wood so I decided to strip it.
1) The 1st application of Dad's (a methylene chloride product) seemed to be working as it produced an average amount of dark goop, but after a TSP wash the canoe barely looked any different.
2) After the 2nd application of Dad's it looked little different and little goop was produced. I did notice that when cleaning up spraying a jet of water I could see small ragged strips of varnish was being lifted off, but the canoe was still almost all covered by a cedar-ish varnish.
3) I had run out of Dads, so I switched to an eco-friendly version of Zar. Again, the canoe was still almost all covered by varnish. And the varnish is still the same Penn Yan cedar-ish tint.
4) At this point I resorted to scraping the canoe while applying heat. This is working. But it's taking forever!
So ok, it's finally coming off. Slowly. My question to you folks is: what is this stuff? I assume the canoe dates from the 50s or 60s... What finishes did they have back then that after 60 years still stands up to a methylene chloride stripper? Epoxy?
The canoe had the cedar-ish tint usually found on Penn Yans so I assume it was the original finish. After cleaning up with a hot TSP wash it didn't look too bad, but there were several scratches that showed aged wood so I decided to strip it.
1) The 1st application of Dad's (a methylene chloride product) seemed to be working as it produced an average amount of dark goop, but after a TSP wash the canoe barely looked any different.
2) After the 2nd application of Dad's it looked little different and little goop was produced. I did notice that when cleaning up spraying a jet of water I could see small ragged strips of varnish was being lifted off, but the canoe was still almost all covered by a cedar-ish varnish.
3) I had run out of Dads, so I switched to an eco-friendly version of Zar. Again, the canoe was still almost all covered by varnish. And the varnish is still the same Penn Yan cedar-ish tint.
4) At this point I resorted to scraping the canoe while applying heat. This is working. But it's taking forever!
So ok, it's finally coming off. Slowly. My question to you folks is: what is this stuff? I assume the canoe dates from the 50s or 60s... What finishes did they have back then that after 60 years still stands up to a methylene chloride stripper? Epoxy?
