Varnishing and so on

[JimC]

It didn't last well on the front door either.

I think that's sort of my point: not so good when exposed to full on conditions. After all, unless it faces north, the front door probably gets more UV exposure in a year than a boat living under a good cover gets in ten, and frost and rain... But cheap "yacht" varnish on furniture inside the house (where it never gets frost and never gets much UV) seems to last indefinitely even under the plant pots where water gets spilled from time to time.

[XQSME]

So the boat is home and I am making preparation for the big jobs...Have decided on Jotun as the choice of gloss varnish , the question here is ...

Can I use something like turps or spirit as a thinner?

[Rupert]

Jotun should tell you what the recommended thinner is, surely? In general, I thin varnish with white spirit, but not used Jotun.

[Ed]

Jotun do at least 4 varnishes and I would imagine have a thinner for each of them.

So depends on what you are using.....

The two simplest 'traditional' varnishes they do are Spontan and Ravilak.

Spontan I would think you would be OK with using white Spirit. Ravilak most probably OK to....

You can see full details at: https://www.smlmarinepaints.co.uk/varnishes/

On the whole, most traditional varnishes will work with white spirit.......but for two-packs and polyurethanes I would advise using the correct thinner.

But if I had any issue with 'drying' or 'pulling' the first thing I would suspect would be the thinner and would then try the correct one to see if that sorted the issue.

Hope this helps

eib