Thursday, August 9, 2012

This Old Kayak, Old Paint, Part 1


People occasionally write me to ask whether they can use this or that material or process in the building of their boat.  I sometimes have answers for them and more often do not.  When I don't, I like to tell them to try whatever it is they are asking about and they will find out if it works or not and then they will be the experts on that particular topic.
In any case, I try a lot of stuff, more or less indifferent that a lot of it won't work.  I also am casual about boat storage so most of my boats are subject to accelerated aging. I also like to use off the shelf, not yacht approved materials to see whether there is a cheap way out of any particular conundrum.
So let's move on to today's topic, Old Paint. No not the horse.  Old paint that has turned dry and brittle and stressed and developed cracks.  To be more specific, old varnish.  Because the substrate of the varnish on a skin on frame boat is a flexible fabric, impact on the skin causes fractures in an interesting way. So proceed and feast your eyes on a variety of stress cracks in old varnish on a nylon skin.  Enjoy.
A small running critter.  The green flecks are fake gold leaf I put in the varnish.  The gold is actually brass and has oxidized to a green.


stretch marks.

Southwestern US petroglyph, what of, I'm not sure.

and a braid.

More stretch marks.

This one kind of looks like an ancient shrimp fossil.

This one, I'm not sure, kind of like a cartoon bird in flight.

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