Hi Phil

I had to coat the teak toe rails on my yacht with something as the teak was
worn and the soft wood was wearing out of the grooves, it was either that or
replace them. The main problem is that teak has a lot of natural oil, you
have to get whatever coating you use to penetrate and form a good bond with
the teak. I used marine varnish. After preparing the teak, using a teak
cleaner then giving it a good sand I applied the first coat of varnish
heavily thinned, this caused it to penetrate the teak making a good initial
bond. I then gave it a further 5 normal coats and built up a good depth of
varnish and after 4 years and many ocean miles it still looks good.

If you could find an appropriate primer that you could thin sufficiently to
penetrate the teak you might be able to do the same thing with paint or
perhaps give it an initial layer of pure epoxy and paint over that? Thats
probably why they suggested using a coat of varnish as if you just sand your
teak the initial bond with your first coat of paint probably wouldn't be
that good.


regards



Steve