: 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?

: Here's the aforementioned discussion:
: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?3996-Epoxy-over-oil-based-stains

Ah, the perfect finish. Which will cease to be perfect with the first contact with something hard.

I burnished my GP, after rubbing on a mix of pure raw linseed oil and turpentine. (I paddle exclusively on salt water) Also, my GP is made of southern yellow pine, not cedar. The weight difference doesn't matter on the water, wood is buoyant.
Any dings, which are always small, are given a rub of a 'burnishing steel', an extension bar for a socket set. (An old Craftsman set my father passed on when he passed on.) The burnishing blends down any 'edges' to dings to where they're not noticable.

Mike Savage
South West Cork