poly or oil?

hey guys
i know alot of you use poly or spar varnish for outside wood
i have had boats for a long time,and have not seen anything
that would not crack and peel after 4-5 yrs
has anyone got tikis 5 yrs or older with poly or varnish
that are still looking good?
i have been using teak oil with good results because i am lazy
and dont want to sand and reseal,just paint some more oil
on from time to time

any imput would be great

Aloha Buzzard, Depending on weather conditions in your part of the world, a new protective coat every 3 to 5 years is a must. Or you could just let it deteriorate and pass it as an authentic look :)
Me thinks oil works best.

There are many types of oil ... what type of oil all are you talking about Grapa?

[ Edited by: Tikirocker 2008-11-09 06:45 ]

You are absolutely right rocker, but i mean oil in general as opposed to poly and especially varnish. I have used oil for garden furniture and general linseed oil with good results. Stuff like varnish hardens and starts cracking due to the wood still working. And once there's a crack, moisture gets in and makes things worse real fast. Because oils always keep some elasticity and penetrate the wood much deeper its more a matter off putting on a new coat every 3 to 5 years instead of checking every inch of wood for cracks or blemishes in the varnish every year. But thats just my opinion/experience, weather conditions (there's a lot of moisture and rain as well as hot and cold here in northern Europe) will also play a role in what's better to use as well as personal taste. Hope this helps

Grapa,

You're a man after my own heart, I concur. I do a lot of work with restoration and preservation of WW1 and WW2 Military rifle stocks; Boiled Linseed Oil or Raw Linseed Oil ( BLO/RLO ) are the oils of choice as this was used by the armourers of the time with good reason - you want the furniture to be able to expand and contract without damage to the finish. Though linseed oil offers no real protection against rain/moisture you can mix 50/50 Tung oil with Linseed Oil and then finish with a wax polish.

Cheers, Simon.

Delete ... dbl post.

[ Edited by: Tikirocker 2008-11-09 10:34 ]

Thanks Rocker, i didn't know about mixing the tung oil. Here we ad something called "sicatief" (i have no idea what the English word for it is), to the linseed oil, that hardens the outer layer making it rain proof.
Most off the furniture oils contain a mix of of linseed and tung oil (just looked it up), so i guess i will be using that for anything that needs to go outside.

Greetings,
Pat

thanks for the imput
the teak oil works good but it is really expensive
and it says its only mineral spirits
i will look for the linseed and tung oil next time
i hit homy d