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Best finish to preserve color of Purpleheart

7K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  Nickp 
#1 ·
#2 ·
keep it out of the light...
protect it from UV exposure...
 

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#4 ·
Marine spar varnish is supposed to have uv inhibitors if that helps. I had some D fir that had beautiful shades of blue and purple in it, the only piece I had ever seen like that but unfortunately it faded out and wasn't so spectacular once it did. It never saw any direct sunlight.
 
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#5 ·
Varathane and Man o' War make a spar poly...specifically made for external masts and other wood...lots of UV inhibitors...

Epiphanes has the most gloss, if you're looking for that...
 
#6 ·
The use of exterior marine finishes makes sense though I'd always thought that UV blockers were to prevent deterioration of the finish itself and not the bleaching of the underlying wood.

By the way, there is a FWW article in #205 (not sure when that was, pre-2009 for sure though) about a multiyear test of exterior finishes. They found that all the consumer "exterior" finishes were basically crap - lasted no more than a year - and that even among the pro finishes only Epifanes went the distance.
 
#10 ·
Herb, the marine finishes seem to work great on the teak on my boat...and it is in the sun all four seasons. After scraping all the old stuff I do a hand sanding then teak oil and then spar finish. If you haven't tried one of the marine spar finishes, grab a test piece/put some on and leave it outdoors through all weather. Not sure how it might work on Purpleheart...
 
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#18 ·
If we're still talking about the exterior teak on boats, the marine spar finishes all work quite well without additional stuff. Not sure if 303 will even layer on top of Epiphanes...

I've used Epiphanes, Varathane and Man-o-war and they keep the color of the wood until they are scratched...
 
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