Yeah, that’s right. Bleach in the subject line sounds kind of crazy, doesn’t it? What this does is make the wood color more even and uniform. Even the newer wood, which is a lot redder typically, will tone down somewhat when bleached.
Typically, you don’t take raw wood and soak it down, but this is a two-part mixture and one is actually lye soap. The other is a really super strong bleach and is very, very caustic.
I soak down the whole boat with the mixture and then let it become almost dry. Then I start rinsing it with a 50-50 water and vinegar mixture to neutralize it and then rinse it several more times. You definitely have to make sure you get this thoroughly neutralized and rinsed off.
I personally have never experienced it, but do know some people that have not gotten it totally neutralized and rinsed off and eventually the stain and varnish lifted off the boat after they thought they had it all the way done, which is kind of heartbreaking because you have to totally redo the whole boat.
By totally redo, I mean you have to sand it all the way back down to the smooth finish, re-bleach it, stain it and then start your varnish again. I hope I never have that happen. Sounds very painful.
I’ll just let it sit in the sun to dry out and hope for the best. It’s looking pretty good. I can’t wait to show you the finished drying process and how much more even the wood ends up. Next is staining.
Jack