Our wood blocks were lignum vitae with bronze guts. I
cleaned and greased the guts and varnished the wood 8 coats.
The lignum was a bitch to sand but held the varnish fine. I
used to varnish a couple coats over the face-plates after
reassembling to keep water out of the shaft. Most of those
blocks were 60 years old and in great shape.

Seahag

"Joe" wrote:
Hey Gaz, or anyone else who uses or likes wooden blocks.

How do you care for and maintain the wood?

I painted some wood blocks and it destroyed them from the
inside out
due to water trapped inside. Rotted the wood around the
sheeves.

Just leave them plain ol wood? Oil the wood?

Was it was just a fluke my painted block went to crap?
Maybe it was bad wood anyway and lasted 5 yrs on deck so I
sould be
happy.

What is your opinion?

Joe