JEM Watercraft

Top picture is the raw wood and the bottom picture is the same wood with one saturation coat of epoxy on it ... the epoxy does darken the wood as you can see.





If you decide to use stain ... DO NOT USE A OIL BASE ONE ..... Water based only if you want the epoxy to work for you.

Chuck.

I see. Thanks alot. I want a slightly darker hull than that one but not enough to risk messing with the epoxy. I will just test out a scrap piece to see how it looks. All my local lowes stocks is the 5.2mm. No 4, they said i would have to order a full pallet of that. Appreciate the advice. Can't wait to get started.

If you want a darker hull then use the Luan/meranti. It is darker than the okoume. I thought about using the meranti marine ply but I could only get it in 1/4 inch. It was twice as heavy per sheet as the okoume so I opted for the okoume. I have used the Luan for bulkheads and other interior parts in my cedar strip boats an and it turns a beautiful dark red-brown color when saturated with epoxy.

If you want to stain, I have seen beautiful results with BEHLEN Solar-Lux Stains. They claim to be a highly fade and UV resistant dye base non-grain raising stain. There is a cedar strip kayak that was stained with these stains prior to fiberglassing which was accepted into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. I believe the color was Cordovan Mahogany.

As Ron has said,

Be carefull using stain. Any stain will reduce your ply's ability to absorb the epoxy, thus making for a weaker bond and increasing the chance of delamination between the epoxy and the surface of your ply.

I have stained the deck of one kayak and will never do it again. The amount of resin it took to "saturate" the outer layer of that deck was astonishingly less than what was required for the rest of the hull.

The only boat I ever had a problem with was because of stain,I am goint to try some of the tint one of these days.
Ron

Please Ron, do not use pink stain unless your building it for one of your little darlings.
Bob

Re staining have a look at Olsnappas cape Fear build he had some sucess with dyes mixed into epoxy to darken wood.

Ok guess I won't be staining it then. Got the plans in and picking up the wood later today. Here goes, should be fun.

In regards to staining I think my boards were stained with great success. I just made sure it was a water based stain and that it dried completely before any epoxy application.

Painted

Remember: Most epoxies, but not all, have an amber tint in the hardener and it will change the look of any stained wood. Be sure to do a test piece first.