I've built two skin on frame touring kayaks about 25 years ago, covered them in canvas and finished them with airplane dope and varnish. That produced a translucent yellowish finish which looked quite nice. In the past 10 years or so I've built four Stitch and glue sea kayaks. With each one I've varnished the deck and have painted the bottom and sides - not because the woodwork was sloppy but because the paint gives more protection, is easier to touch up (though I tend not to touch up the boats more than once every two years, or when I'm going to sell them), and looks **really nice**. I've had the same experience many others have had - people come up to the boats and comment on their beauty. Paint, properly done, can look wonderful. Varnish, sloppily done, just looks sloppy. The other consideration for me is that I have to finish the boats in an area which is inherently dusty, and varnish seems to attract dust much more quickly than does paint. I do all sorts of things to minimize dust - clean the area as thoroughly as possible, wet it down thoroughly a few hours before varnishing or painting or varnishing, even build a "room within a room" using temporary plastic walls and ceiling. Nothing completely stops the dust, which shows up much more easily on the varnished surfaces. Bill Hansen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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