This winter I built a 10×36 foot deck for a client, and the decking is 1×4 mahogony, with cedar railing and balusters. The deck has great southern exposure, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with treating the deck with any prouduct that will help retain the nice look of the wood. It has faded alot already, but looks brand new after it rains.
Glenn
Replies
Try some Penofin Oil. It's an extract of Brazilian Rosewood.
Penofin clearly hopes that people will associate their product with the desirable characteristics of Brazilian rosewood, but it is mainly a marketing ploy. The Penofin web site http://www.Penofin.com/exotic.htm states that what they call "Brazilian Rosewood Oil" is "Sustainably harvested from the Oiticica nut." The horticultural name for Oiticica is Licania rigida. Brazilian rosewood is Dalbergia nigra. Oiticica does grow in Brazil, and it's oil is used in Penofin, but the 'rosewood' part is pure invention.
Thanks for the horticultural/chemistry lesson. I was only sending a suggestion to Glenn about his project. My observation was from having used this "stuff" on a Brazilian Cherry floor and Staircase that I completed this year, and a "mahogany" deck that I oiled last year on Nantucket . It looks fantastic, and so far has been holding up well after a New England Winter. I would much prefer having my old PENTA preservative to use, but it has been off the commercial market (but not all markets) for over fifteen years. We have been experimenting with all kinds of concoctions
all these years, and this Penofin oil looks promising.
PS: Just remember that nothing ever holds up as long as they say. Good for refinishers, bad for cheapskate homeowners.
I didn't mean to suggest that Penofin would be a bad idea in this application. I haven't used it myself, but I have heard almost unanimously favorable comments from those who have. I might have suggested in myself if no one else did.
But that "Brazilian Rosewood Oil" tickled my sense of the absurd. Real Brazilian rosewood is so rare, if not actually endangered, that it's not even legal to import it into the US anymore. And they're grinding it up to make deck finish out of? I don't think so.
Of course Penofin isn't the only company around that has a perfectly good product but feels like they have to make exaggerated claims for it.
Uncle Buck, apology accepted, thanks!
There is one negative aspect to the oil - it stinks. you need an "air-out" period before returning inside.
interesting, I knew that the rosewood trade is essentially illegal now, but I did hear of a company in brazil that is legally harvesting the stumps of rosewood trees that had been felled in years past. They cut out the stump and harvest it into turning blanks and small boards. I do believe they are importing into the US, under the auspices of the brazilian government.
I've been using Penofin on my oak front door (Which you'll be able to see in the table of contents in the next issue of FHB) for three years. Seems like good stuff to me. Initially, I did three coats. Every fall I recoat, about a twenty minute job. I don't mind the smell, but SWMBO complains. Andy Engel, The Accidental Moderator
Go with Sealoflex Sealclear. It will probably give you 2 years before needing recoating.
Cliff. Johnston