Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Varathane 66 availability

I'm always ready to try something new in gunstock refinishing but I can't seem to find a source for this magic potion that does everything but the dishes.

Somebody tell me where to order or tag me up a website?

Thanks

Wayne

Wayne
It is very hard to find... shelf life is fairly short and many retailers do not like that idea...

A substitute can be made from 1 part Watco oil, 1 part spar varnish and 1 part paint thinner. Mix the oil and varnish first and then add thinner until it is quite watery, but no more than 1 part. Some varnishes are thicker than others, that is why the inexactitude.
art

After Sitka Deer gave me the tip about Varathane 66, I looked all over Des Moines, and couldn't find it. I didn't even see it cataloged.

I'm curious though, it that the same or similar to a finish that was popular some years ago, Flecto Plastic Oil and Sealer?

Paul

Thanks, Sitka.

The only way they sell spar varnish around this neck of the woods is by the gallon. You think 3 gallons of mix ought to be enough to touch up a finish or two?

I'll order up some Watco and a 1/2 pint of spar varnish from Midway, mix with some odorless thinner I have and try it on one of the many gunstocks laying around my shop that someone unnamed has Bubbaed up.

If that subsitute works as good as Varathane 66 is hyped up, you should put your name on a patent.

Thanks,

Wayne

Paul
Flecto plastic oil and sealer is different stuff, thicker and more like typical Varathane.
art

Wayne
Hardly patentable... besides Rudy Osolnik, a woodturner and teacher from KY, now deceased, showed me that trick quite a few years ago. He had a plant mix him up the stuff by the 55 gallon drum and he bottled it in plastic jugs and sold it to his students and anybody else that wanted some.

Makes for a pretty decent finish...
art

Sitka,

So the stuff must have a better life, after opening, than the Varathane 66? Found the Watco Neutral Danish Oil, but the clerks around here have never heard of varnish or shellac.

Oh, well.

Wayne

It does last quite a bit longer than 66... Spar varnish is a general class of finishes and should be at every hardware store.

Why would that not surprise me? I'll bet they are pretty young too, or maybe I'm just old.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone into a store to buy something I think is common (or used to be), and they not only don't have it but the clerks never even heard of it. Woodworking/finishing products are a good example.

It may be because so few of the electronic generation have jobs or hobbies that develop handworking skills and knowledge. They just don't learn how to make or fix things, and just don't care.

Paul

Paul, amen to that. And IMHO that's part of what's wrong with today's young folks.

Wayne

Phooey and begora!! Varathane 66 is the same as unicorn tears. It will cure anything known to man but the problem is finding some. Guess I'll stick to true oil.

Wayne

You might try Al Gore's tears. Supposed to do wonders for the environment!

Not to make too big a point...but todays youth were raised in todays world...and todays world is a throw away world...very few "things" can be fixed...they aren't made to be fixed, they were made to last a period of time then be replaced with "newer and better"...that is to keep the economy going and line someone fatcats pockets at the expense of the great unwashed masses. I don't think todays youth are in anyway wrong because THEIR PARENTS MADE THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN...so if you want to blame todays youth for something, then you better put the blame right square on the shoulders of their elders for making "today's youths" world what it is...and for the elders making laws eliminating many of the products that you and I used..."in the old days" all in the name of "saving the Environment".

It doesn't take but a few moments on the TV to learn about what the greater part of humanity has done to our home and what is about to happen. Maybe if the elders had kept their peckers in their pockets and stopped having so many kids the world wouldn't be in such a mess...so don't blame the youth...they INHERITED the pile of krap they are living in from the garbage their parents piled up because they followed some religious dogma, wouldn't use contraceptive devices and thought they were "MEN" and didn't use their brains...ALL religious and male dominated societies all around the world!!!

This is MHO after watching the world go around for 65 plus years and living all over the world and in all of the states west of the Big Muddy and working at everything from grunt laborer to middle management in several large companies and back down the ladder again.

If we cant' stop pointing fingers, blaming "the other guy" and start cooperating in cleaning up this mess Mother Nature will do it for us, and if she does it she might decide that anything that walks on two legs doesn't deserve such bounty and gives it back to the things that walk on 4 to 8 legs.

'Njoy

That's probably your problem. Too much TV and not enough original thought. Try a bit of actual fact finding on your own. Read a little. Go to a library and actually use your mind. Quit regurgitating what some talking head keeps repeating on TV. Try to remember that TV was invented for entertainment, not historical accuracy. 90 percent of what's on TV is fiction and the other 10 percent isn't worth watching. My dog knows better than to believe TV. If it doesn't smell like a dog then it isn't a dog. Bet you thought that "Fahrenheit 911" and "Bowling for Columbine" were documentarys. But I digress. Thanks for the DIY Varathane 66 recipe Art!

Art, which Watco oil are you referring to?

Paul

Remember Sitka, there are all kinds of Spar Varnishes these days. There is the regular Spar Varnish, there is Polyurethane Spar Varnish, etc, etc, the latest stuff on the shelves is often Spar Urethane--but it's allegedly good stuff.


Casey

Looks like Rust-Oleum owns the Varathane brand now--and I don't see Varathane 66....

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGBrand.asp?bid=12




Casey

That's my impression too, thus my interest in Sitka Deer's home made substitute.

Paul

If you haven't tried Minwax Wipe-On Poly you are missing an easy and tough finish. Because it is very thin, and is wiped on with a rag, you avoid all the usual bubbles, sags and runs that brush-on poly gives you. All that is necessary is to wipe on a coat, let it dry thoroughly, and give it a rub-down with 0000 steel wool. When you like the results, stop. You're finished.

Thanks. I'm familiar with polys, but prefer to use an oil type finish in this case.

Paul