Soft Mahogany

[smoothmove]

I'm helping a friend with an Egg Harbor and one of the first things he wants to tackle is a small amount of rot in some interior wood. Fortunately, the hull is FRP. I've used Git Rot before - back in the day, and was satisfied with it. Now, I'm wondering if Smith's penetrating epoxy would work as well for some small areas of rot. Anyone see a problem with substituting the CPES? Guess I've tried too hard to forget all those little tricks of the trade I picked up fiddling around with Chris Craft woodies. Gorgeous boats - hope I never own another.
Eric

[bobk]

I've used lots of Git-Rot over the years, but no CPES.

There is one difference between them that you need to consider before making a decision on which to use. Git-Rot is epoxy plus amine and phenol curing agent. Little or no solvents that need to evaporate. CPES has a lot of solvent, something like 65% if my old memory is working. So if the repair will include filling some pockets where the wood is missing, Git-Rot would seem the better choice. It cures to a tough mass as you know. The CPES might be the better product if you are trying to seal a surface.

Bob

[thoward]

. Gorgeous boats - hope I never own another.
Eric

Me too!

I made mine with West System and it worked fine. I used their fillers as well and had good luck with them.

[Bob Bradley]

Me too!

I made mine with West System and it worked fine. I used their fillers as well and had good luck with them.

Ditto. The only correct way to fix the problem is to 1) find and eliminate the source of fresh water that is causing the decay, and 2) replace and refinish the wood altogether. Replacing pieces is often much easier than you would think, and the results are far better than either Git Rot or CPES. Oh, and FWIW I very much like CPES, but mostly as a rot preventative. 2 or 3 coats on the end grain, and the wood should never rot if properly bedded.

[spartonboat1]

Ditto. The only correct way to fix the problem is to 1) find and eliminate the source of fresh water that is causing the decay, and 2) replace and refinish the wood altogether. Replacing pieces is often much easier than you would think, and the results are far better than either Git Rot or CPES. Oh, and FWIW I very much like CPES, but mostly as a rot preventative. 2 or 3 coats on the end grain, and the wood should never rot if properly bedded.

Whoa dude- quoting the magic 3 coats on end grain (two on side grain) for epoxy coating- cool. Rot is greatly prevented because wood will not rot a) if at less than 20% water by weight and b) in the presence of O2. So dry wood or no O2 and voila, no rot. Wood boats in the Pharoh's tomb 3k years old had not rotten; no fiberglas boats found lol...

[Steve Smith]

Whoa dude- quoting the magic 3 coats on end grain (two on side grain) for epoxy coating- cool. Rot is greatly prevented because wood will not rot a) if at less than 20% water by weight and b) in the presence of O2. So dry wood or no O2 and voila, no rot. Wood boats in the Pharoh's tomb 3k years old had not rotten; no fiberglas boats found lol...

Hello. I was Just browsing and noticed this post. It is true that if you keep wood dry enough the fungi can't eat the wood 'cause it's just TOO dry [they can't make enough saliva to chew it up....]. Rot doesn't happen without oxygen, either....even if it's wet. Maybe ten years ago of my customers brought me a piece of 6-million-year-old fern-stem that was dug out of a mud bank [almost no oxygen down there] where the tourists go digging for fossil opal. There was still enough fiber left that it would hold its shape, although it had to be kept under water; allowed to dry out, it fell apart if handled. Just for the heck of it, I dried a piece *very carefully*, and gently dripped CPES onto it, and let that sit a week, and repeated the treatment twice more. I restored that piece of six-million-year-old wood enough that it had handling strength. True story.

Getting back to fungi and air and water, I have written about this from time to time, as it is something that anyone with wood in their lives needs to know. Word gets around; just recently a painter who had evidently read some of my materials put up a post about this in the Do-It-Yourself forum. Well, it's a pretty good summary of the care and feeding of fungi, and he got all his facts right, so I'll just put in a link to that post [but, not having fifteen posts, I can't post links, so I will sort-of spell it out]

It starts with the usual three w, and then diychatroom and then a dot com and /showthread.php?t=23401&highlight=fungi

The moral of all this is that water-intrusion and ventilation are the two things that should be looked at in any wood or GRP boat to keep it from going away. Water intrusion leads to rot in balsa-core structures: The water can't escape as vapor as easily as it enters as liquid [the ratio is 1200-to-one] and there's NO ventilation inside a balsa core. Without ventilation, the moisture content of wood with water exposure can esily rise to the 15-30% range that fungi love, and without ventilation in the interior of a GRP hull, you will have higher probability and severity of GRP osmotic-blistering.

Steve Smith

[drburke]

All,

Just posting the link for Steve:

http://www.diychatroom.com/showthrea...ighlight=fungi

He is just down the street from me, if any member needs something picked up or personally discussed. Pretty cool company, products, and advice, and I am glad he is monitoring HOF.

DAN

[Steve Smith]

Thanks, Dan. Are you North, South, East or West of me?

[drburke]

Due west, E Dock at Marina Bay.

I'll stop by someday--generally I pass by to and from work in Berkeley.

You can PM me for more info if you like.

Did you happen to check out the Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show at Corinthian Sunday? I wondered if any of your products were evident...

More later,
DAN

[Steve Smith]

I did not, Dan. I was busy at work on Sunday, working on the engineering details of a Pilot Plant for making fuel oil from vegetable oil (like biodiesel,only better, and doesn't need to burn food for fuel). It's something I invented over the winter, almost by accident, and now am wrestling with the details of how to commercialize it.

Smith & Co. is still here and still producing and expanding, but about three years ago I reinvented myself, as a Scientist. See the website at consultingscientist dot us for more and shamelessly self-promoting information.

Feel free to drop by; call first to make sure the doors will be open.