BYYB Forums

I'm planning on leaving portions of the topside bright, but they will need a non skid treatment.  Crushed walnut shells?  Applied to the varnish?  Any help with the proper technique appreciated.

Dave

Crushed walnut shells or most other "usual" filler materials will make the clear coating opaque. Sugar or salt are the usual method, though it looks terrible to most folks.

The trick is sprinkle sugar or salt over the wet varnish, just like adding texture to paint. Let it dry then wash the surface, which melts the sugar or salt, leaving little craters and the like in the coating, which is an effective anti skid.

The problem is the reflections from this surface look like what they are a clear coating on the surface of the moon and most seeing this think something is wrong at first glance. Second is the irregular thickness caused by the texture material causes more UV protection is some places and less in others, which usually causes the wood below to discolor at a different rate (all wood under varnish or clear coats discolor with time). The result is a blotchy effect with denser areas of texture being lighter then less dense or high traffic areas.

All this said it does work and if interested in a better explanation I can link you to another site where I and a few others can guide you through the process.

Maybe a non-skid area composed of thin parallel lines of a wood-coloured non-skid paint, or a colour that complements the wood might be more aesthetically pleasing. That way you have the non-skid under your feet, but the overall "woodiness" is still evident. The top of my boat is white, but the non-skid areas are a light tan colour, (like the borders of this web page, come to think of it) that goes well with the bright toe rail and trim. What I am thinking of, is to mask off your area of non-skid surface, then additionally mask it so the resulting paint is in long thin parallel stripes within the overall non-skid area. Then you can still see the wood. (And you can see the non skid area, so you know if you're standing on it or not )