: It seems this is a never-ending topic, and I'm sure very boring for
: long-time posters. I'm looking for *the peeerffeeeect
: finiiiiiish*! One that has the great hand feel of tung oil, but
: the hardness afforded by epoxy. I've made on paddle that felt
: amazing with just spirit line tung blend, but I chipped it on
: the first trip -_- I also have some west system 105/207.

: I found on the woodenboat forums a suggestion that epoxy as the
: first coat, sanded back down to the wood, and then with an oil
: finish as usual on top would be a great combination of hardness
: and feel. Does anyone have experience with such a technique? The
: idea I guess is to get the epoxy into the grain, but off the
: surface. Would some UV protection for the epoxy be a necessity
: in this case? If so, wouldn't the varnish kind of ruin the
: potential feel of the wood?

I've been using Watco oil followed by pure tung oil, not a mixture which is usually tung oil and a varnish.

The Watco soaks in better than the tung oil does and the tung oil gives a nice finish. Takes an extra day for the Watco to cure, otherwise pretty easy.

Still you'll get dings, WRC is pretty soft and still needs periodic recoating but lasts much longer than just tung oil.

Bill H.