Minwax Polyshades

 15 Jan 22:

Capn Jack came across a trick a few years back, Minwax makes a combination wood stain and polyurethane, called Polyshades. With Polyshades we can stain and add a protective coating all in one fell swoop. There are several shades to choose from, we chose Cherry because it sounded delicious. (Disclaimer: Don't taste it) Actually we chose Cherry because we plan to put some white and red stripes to the tips of the blade and this shade will contrast nicely. We considered straight varnish for the spruce wood, but it tends to have a bland finish if the spruce is more of the pine variety*.

*Speaking of Spruce, why spruce? It is a softwood, good blend of light weight and strength, commonly used for spars and canvassed decking on small boats. We picked up this "spruce" at the local building supply, it was sold as spruce but when it is marked SPF that means it could be spruce, pine or fir. As mentioned above, this spruce worked more like white pine. Not a bad wood, but spruce spruce would have been a bit lighter.