JEM Watercraft

Those who followed the build log of my Cape Fear might remember that I was dissatisfied with the colour of the hull after the fibre glassing. I had been too hasty at the start and didn’t give enough consideration to staining the wood before the first epoxy coat.
The solution was to use a transparent dye in the final epoxy coat resulting in a finish I was much happier with…….and still am.

Used this......

To get from this......

To this.

One thing has become apparent though.
I’ve used the CF a fair bit and in a variety of locations and she’s performed beautifully.
Our adventures have seen her get her fair share of bumps and scrapes…Nothing major but she’s no longer in “show room” condition
Naturally what gets scraped first (beyond the varnish coat) is the dyed top coat of epoxy.
Because it’s the colour layer that’s scraped, battle scars stand out as more obvious because the bright wood shows through. With the benefit of hindsight it seems pretty obvious but didn’t occur to me at the time
I haven’t tried touching up these areas but I think it would be very difficult to colour match using small quantities of epoxy and dye.
The CF’s few scrapes and scuffs don’t really worry me particularly…….she carries them with pride.
But I thought I’d mention this point so that anyone considering this process is at least aware before committing to it.
Of course in my case, the dyed final coat was a rescue option to what was an early mistake in the build anyway and it’s not a method I’d choose in the planning stage…..too hit and miss.
The best solution is to establish the desired colour using a water based stain before the first epoxy coat hits the hull

Cool,thanks for the pics and info Great looking boat

Mike

Hi John,
Perfect timing for your post because I'm sanding/re-coating my Cal Sabalo and asked Matt about this exact step of darkening the epoxy glass-filler layer. Trying to catch-up to Bemm's new Sabalo!

Would you please add another picture with a zoomed-in look at the wood grain? What type of wood did you use for the CF? My wood is Okuome.

I've Googled this product and it seeems to be Austraulian Ebay only, is that true? Need it this weekend.
The one caution about staining the wood before epoxy saturation is the stain fills most the pours instead of the epoxy so there is catch-22. I bet some experimentation with these dyes at a precise ratio is just ticket for a saturation coat with perfect tone. I'll experiment inside a hatch compartment first.
Here is Bemm's color:

Here is mine before sanding:


Here is the Australian Ebay link with a color chart at the bottom:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PSTF-Transparent ... dZViewItem
Thanks,
Craig

G'day Mike, thanks.
G'day Craig.
I bought the dye direct from the manufacturer here in Australia.
You can buy it online through their site and they ship overseas.

Supplier was Aldax Moulds
http://www.aldax.com.au/

Online catalogue page for the dyes.
http://www.aldaxstore.com.au/search.asp ... =resin+dye

The wood used was Hoop Pine Marine Ply.
Craig, If you’re considering using it keep in mind that the dye is intended for small solid resin items so the density of a three dimensional piece of jewellery, for example, gives the colour effect with only a relatively small amount of the product.
For colouring a kayak hull, you are applying a very thin coating over a large area so you need to go fairly heavy on the dye to get any colour effect.
Because I was attempting to colour over a very light wood, I used 2 bottles of dye in a total resin mix of about 500ml...... In my case the finished result isn’t truly transparent. Some of the detail in the grain of the wood was lost……but it’s still a definite wood look rather than a solid painted finish. I probably could have used one and a half bottles and retained a little more detail.
Did you mean a photo of the wood grain after the dye coating?