Ship's Wheel Resto

 01 Sep 23:

A friend offered a real ship's wheel to add to the back yard light ship, to complement the plastic wheel already in place. I suppose there can be two, one for port side and one for starboard, useful for maneuvering the ship in port. 

The wheel was gifted to our retired Coast Guard friend Steve, but Steve's armada was already full up with wheels. It sat in storage for a while, then was called to active service for several years on his Grandkid's playset. When the family had a homeport change, the wheel returned to ready storage with Steve. Now the wheel has been called back into active service at our Mid Atlantic Station. We took it today, gave it a scrub with water, Dawn dishwashing liquid and then Tilex. Here it is ready for a wood finish. 

We had a few Minwax finishes to pick from, Chestnut Polyshades on the left, then Red Oak stain or Gunstock stain. Gunstock was the winner.

Staining raw wood is always a pleasant experience, the wood said "aaaaahhhhhh" and just soaked the stain in. We applied a base coat then went back with another coat, knowing that the color would darken with each application.

We set the wheel up in the drying booth (aka the westward facing windows of the Carriage House), to bake the finish for a few days. At the time we weren't sure which type of varnish we'd use as a sealant. We were considering TotalBoat Gleam Satin Marine Varnish, but know that this oil based stain needs to be dry dry dry before even attempting to apply a poly varnish. After a phonecon with Capn Rick, Skipper's brother, we decided to apply a coat or two of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane, to ensure compatibility with the Minwax stain. Capn Jack also liked to use Minwax with stain finishes, so that's the route we are going. 

We also made the first pass at cleaning up the metal, we used Pikal, a metal polish that we have used on some other projects. We aren't trying for a super bright finish, but we are more focused on getting a protective coat on the metal.