what to treat oak with

[adamelder]

Ive had my fingers burnt trying hundreds of different ways to protect oak from moisture. Covering it in an epoxy works but as soon as there's a chip in the covering and the water gets in the problems start with a vengance.

 

The boat is fantastic and seeing it reminded me of a table I built years ago from oak. It sat out in my garden and despite all efforts with varnishes of every sort, epoxy, oils, etc it still went black. I got fed up with it after about a year and so we dragged it down to the beach at low tide and chained it to the rocks. Left it there for a few weeks. Of course it got well distressed by the waves but after we took it back to the garden it didn't start going black again for a good couple of years. So I can only think that the salt from the sea must have had some sort of effect.

 

Many thanks for the nice words about the sink. The hardest bit of doing it was getting it up two flights of stairs. I remember we put it on two sets of bathroom scales and it maxed them both out at 22 stone each.