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There is an old joke about the man who drank a quart of Varnish. He had a terrible end but a beautiful finish.
That's sort of the story about varnish today. The old fashion varnish is on its way out, which is sad because it
has is such a wonderful product.
Traditional varnish (sometimes called Spar Varnish) is a resin in an oil base with solvents. It has natural UV
protecting properties. It is semi-thick, tends to flow off brushes nicely, imparts a warm amber color to surfaces,
and is easy to re-apply over old varnish providing that the old varnish is not too badly degraded. It also sands
nicely and, I think, smells good.
It is common on wood trim on boats and a common 'trick' is to apply over an epoxy coated surface. That surface
might be the epoxy covered hull of a newly built boat, or an epoxy resin coated piece of wood trim from the cockpit
of a larger boat. The varnish protects the epoxy from UV damage and the epoxy gives the varnish a nice and stable
surface to bond to. The resulting epoxy/varnish coating system is much more longer lasting than either one alone.
Some professionals add extra solvent the the first few coats of varnish they are applying over wood. This makes
the varnish thinner and helps it soak into the wood better, thus giving (in theory) better adhesion for the entire
system of multiple coats of varnish (some folks will apply 8-12 coats of varnish rather than a simple 2 or 3).
Note that is may be a violation of local VOC restriction laws.
Another professional 'trick' with varnish is to apply it to all uncoated wood surfaces that are to receive a coat
of paint. This way if in the future one wants to give that wood surface a clear coating that shows the wood pattern
(i.e. a varnish or clear poly finish) the varnish first coat will have prevented the paint's pigments from penetrating
into the wood, making sanding away all the pigmented paint much easier.
The problem with traditional varnish is that it contains lots of solvent, more than air quality, VOC regulations
(VOCs are the solvents in products) allow (see www.epoxyproducts.com/voc.html). This is why
traditional varnish is often difficult or impossible to purchase now. Fortunately all states except California have a quart exemption rule. This means you can purchase quart units of traditional varnish, but not gallon units. California has done away with the quart exemption rule. Other states are considering it.
Some varnish makers may not want to bother with 'only quart cans.' I think some varnish manufacturer (especially outside the USA) may not know the legal rules and I also think that many boat supply stores/hardware shops pretend not to know. Some states allow for the sell of existing old stock.
Let the buyer beware....
The words 'varnish' or 'spar' don't seem to mean much of anything and their use is not a guaranty that the product is real, traditional varnish. I have seen products called urethane varnish, spar urethane or simply spar varnish, or simply varnish that is not the traditional varnish product. These new products usually were developed to replace 'real' varnish with a product that as acceptable levels of VOC. With all the ones I have examined they look, smell, apply nothing like real varnish, and in the few tests I have done, did not perform as well (they also tend to be thinner so it takes more coats of them to equal a single coat of real varnish). You have to read the label carefully to see what you are getting. If 'water' and/or 'urethane' appear on the label, it is not traditional varnish.
These new products may, or may become, superior to traditional varnish. I don't like them at this point in time,
but that is personal opinion. You will need to test them yourself to your criteria. In the meanwhile, I will stick
to traditional varnish.
Because real varnish is getting hard or impossible to find, we do sell it along with our epoxies. It is our own
private label varnish. We take advantage of the quart packing exemption (in all states but California) in order
to sell it. Thus, you can only purchase it in quart cans. This product can be found in our marine catalog at: www.epoxyproducts.com/5_urethane.html (it is not a urethane, but all the none epoxy coatings we have go in this section!), and in
our industrial/residential catalog at www.epoxyproducts.com/e_nonepoxy.html section.
Note that this product can only be shipped by ground and cannot be shipped by air or outside the USA. This usually
also precludes shipment to Alaska and Hawaii.
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