What do you Recommend for Beautifying a Teak Swimstep?

[KM7]

My 1992 Four Winns Horizon 200 has a nice Teak swimstep. It does require regular maintenance to have it looking its best. I have used Teak Oil and occasionally Teak cleaner and then Teak oil.

I did not use the Teak oil this time, so I do not have a picture. I did not use any varnish this time.

After the Teak Sealer, it looks good but could be better. I'd like it shinier.

What do you recommend?

BTW why is there no forum dedicated to the brightwork, the woodwork, preparation, sealing, varnishes, Teak oils etc?

 

[dingbat]

BTW why is there no forum dedicated to the brightwork, the woodwork, preparation, sealing, varnishes, Teak oils etc?

Teak went out of vogue back around the turn of the century.

Too much work to maintain coupled with conservation concerns pretty much sealed its fate.

Replaced by starboard (HDPE) for the most part that requires little to no maintenance at all.

 

[redneck joe]

Yeah but nothing like teak....

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Sand it down then coat with turpentine and mineral spirits.

 

[southkogs]

I re-did one of mine years ago. There was some pretty good advice in THIS thread.

 

[todhunter]

For my teak, I disassembled and ran parts through a planer and/or hand sanded to remove the heavily oxidized layer of wood - didn't have to go very deep. Now I just oil twice a year with Watco Teak Oil, then during winter storage, remove the swim platform from the boat and store it in the engine bay to keep it out of the elements.

Some of the wood trim on my boat was too far gone, so during the restoration I re-made those pieces from sapele (mahogany), and oiled with Watco as well.