Gold Cove Stripe

[Willin']

My sheer plank has a lovely gold cove stripe in it that will need repainting when I do my topsides (any week now if the frickin' rain ever stops). Not only have I never done this before, I can't find any gold marine enamel from the usual sources.

I'm not very steady at free-handing striping. Does anyone have any suggestions/ paint recommendations/ experiences they care to share?

No need to recommend gold leaf-that ain't gonna happen;)


Thanks!

[Evan Showell]

Mark -- Several years ago I wooded a bright mahogany hull with help from my dad and brother. There is a routed covestripe. When wooding the hull, I noticed that the covestrip had bleached a bit lighter than the surrounding hull, and we used a little oaxalic acid "brightening" solution on the rest of the hull, but left the cove strip alone. From a distance of 6-10 feet, the covestrip looked like it was gold, but it was simply lighter wood under the finish. If you have a bright finished hull that has weathered a bit, you might give that a go.

More details as to your particular project are required.

Best of luck. We'll be in Phippsburg in Aug.

[JimConlin]

There are 'gold' paints. Interlux once made #277 'Gold Mist' (alkyd) enamel amd I expect that your local paint shop sells something yellow and metallic for radiators. All of these are just brass powder in varnish and will turn green if you even bring a saltshaker into the room. The remedy for this is a clear LPU over-coat. The first Interlux clear LPU product 'Polythane' (many years ago) would cover alkyd paints without lifting them. The next, 'Interthane' would lift. I don't know what currently offered clear LPU's will not molest an underlying alkyd finsh.

In retrospect, this is far too much of a PITA for a B- result and the next time i'm doing an incised cove stripe, i'll look hard at gold leaf. Ask a local sign-painter.

The practical answer is a bright yellow or black or navy enamel. That earns a grade of C.

[Nicholas Carey]

Metallic paints don't last too long, either. They dull pretty quickly.

If you're going to paint the stripe, you'll be wanting a "striping quill "-- it's a special type of camel- or squirrel-hair brush, especially for pinstriping. The bristles are about 2 inches long and the quills come in different sizes, depending on the width of stripe you want to lay down. The handles are typically quite short (a couple of inches) to facilitate rolling the brush as needed. If you want a longer handle, you'll need to haft it yourself. Here's a source for striping quills: http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&itemID=1944&keyword=37061

But they should be fairly easy to find at sign painter supply stores, auto body supply stores, etc.

If you paint it and want to mask the stripe, use 3M's Fine Line masking tape -- it's expensive, but properly burnished, you should get a really crisp edge with little to no bleed and very little tear-out when you remove it.

You might think about gilding, though...

Gold leaf isn't that expensive -- a book of 23k patent leaf will run about $40 or so, depending on the price of gold, of course. Gold leaf comes in two flavors, plain leaf and "patent" leaf. Patent leaf has a paper backing on each sheet so handling is much facilitated.

With plain leaf, you'll need a gilder's pad, knife and brush to cut and pick up the leaf. And you'll need a very still environment -- the sheets of gold are so thin that the lightest air currents will pick them up.

The paper backing on patent leaf simplifies this considerably and makes outdoors gilding much easier. For doing things like cove stripes, you can buy "ribbon leaf" as well -- it's basically a roll of leaf on a paper backing. Each leaf overlaps the previous by a half inch or so. A little rummaging around the web sez that you can buy a roll of 23k ribbon leaf, 1/2 inch wide x something like 70 feet long (21 meters) for about $70 or so.

Avoid imitation leaf as it will corrode quickly. Gold leaf will last longer than the paint.

You should be able to get gold leaf from a number of sources: sign painter's supply shops, art stores. You can order it from -- among other places -- Sepp Leaf http://www.seppleaf.com/ in New York City. Sepp is one of the big distributors of leaf, so their prices tend to be better than a retail store.

A sign guy ought to be able to gild your stripe in just a couple of hours.

Oil gilding is pretty striaght forward:

0. Prime the ground with yellow or red enamel. Yellow will help mask any holidays in the leaf; red will enhance the color and help show any holidays in the leaf.
1. Apply gold size (special very slow-drying varnish). Let it tack.
2. When it reaches the correct tack (typically 12 hours or so for slow size), you apply your leaf. Using patent leaf, lay it metal side down (obviously) and lightly burnish it with a cotton ball.
3. Peel off the paper backing
4. Burnish it lightly again with a cotton ball.
5. Let it dry.
6. Sweep off excess leaf with a soft paintbrush. The leaf should only stick to the size, so removal of excess leaf is pretty simple.
7. If you like, it's a tasty detail to outline the gilding with a pinstrip e of suitable contrasting color.

That contrasting border comes in handy at repainting time. The gilding will last longer than the paint (and it protects the underlying ground from UV damage). At painting time, you can mask off the gilding (don't put tape or adhesive on the gold!). Remove the masking, and repaint/touchup the border and Bob's yer uncle.

Also, with genuine gold leaf, don't put varnish over it. The varnish will yellow and get UV damage and you'll have to strip the leaf off and re-gild.

Avoid imitation leaf. Stick to 23 or 24 karat leaf and you should have a cove stripe that will last a long, long time.

One thing with gold leaf: choice of leaf. There's German-made leaf and Italian leaf. Some people like German leaf; others like Italian. Different manufactuer's and different types of leaf have differing colors. For a cove stripe, you probably want "double leaf" as it's about 20% thicker than standard leaf.

I just noticed that peal paint has some good deals on leaf: http://www.pearlpaint.com/shop~ocID~4999~parentID~4998~categoryID~4997.htm (http://www.pearlpaint.com/shop%7EocID%7E4999%7EparentID%7E4998%7EcategoryID% 7E4997.htm)

[Wild Wassa]

Clear oil based paint is still available from paint suppliers (I like Bristol in Oz), just add gold titanium oxide pigment to it which can be obtained from any good artist's store. Most golds tend to be made from titanium oxides.

When I have needed traditional pigments that were not just an oil based or a acrylic based tints, I have contacted a paint manufacturer of artist's paints and ordered specific powder pigments. 'Atilier' in Australia will ship pure pigments (just don't overlook asking if wetting agents are needed to help disperse the particular pigment that you are after). Not all pigments disperse evenly within the medium. If you are dispersing metal flakes in polyurethanes, an 'automotive controller' from an automotive paint supplier will help to uniformly disperse the pigment within the medium.

I have a few gold pigments, incliding pure gold powder that I ordered from Indonesia from the paint manufacture 'Avian', for this very reason.

Warren.

[Jay Greer]

To qualify what I am about to say. This is not a commercial: My company specializes in ship carving, signage and hand lettering of transoms among other things involved with boats and boating.

Our own approach to doing a cove stripe is to first sand and prime the cove with Yellow tinted primer using a sign writer's quill. Once the primer is dry, sanded with 220, dusted and tacked. The coved plank is dusted with a pounce bag of talc. This is to prevent gold from sticking where it is not wanted. The cove itself is then, carefully retacked with one finger on the rag running only in the cove. 24hour, slow dry, yellow tinted gold size is layed into the cove using a sign writers quill brush that is the width of the cove. This is not as hard as it sounds. The brush is guided by the cove and fingers are braced against the plank to drag the brush. The work is then left to dry to a light tack. Too wet and it will smear the gold. So let it go for over night if the stripe is layed on in the afternoon. Next day, lay on "rolled gold" this is usually 23k lemon lemon gold and, comes in continuous rolls. We get ours from "Art Essentials" of N.Y. Ltd.
http://metals.about.com/od/gildingleaf/
As the gold rolls out it is gently tapped and rubbed in with a finger on the paper backing. Any voids are tapped in using fresh gold on the backing paper or with a gilders tip using shell gold "loose gold scrap" that has been saved from a previous job. Let the cove dry overnight again. Next A.M. go over it by tapping lightly on the raw gold with a finger tip. Then go over the stripe using a soft 3/4" Gray Hound sign writer's brush to remove any loose or ragged gold flakes. Finally, once the surface is really dry, burnish the gold lightly with a cotton ball. Should any gold stick to the planking it can be removed with a light rub using a finger tip, tee shirt and a bit of Bon Ami. This method will produce good results if done with patience and no hurry. For a thirty foot cove on each side of a hull the labor in hours is about six to eight in real time. Materials will run at current market value. A cover done in this manner should last many years.

Or you can lay in a stripe of gold colored tape. Admittedly tacky but it serves a need.
JG

[Willin']

Thanks for the great advice, guys!

Actually Nicholas, your info also bears on the problem of what to do with the name on my transom when I get around to that.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5db39b3127cce91e66390d3f300000016108Acs2TFy3atn

Lots of good info to digest here. At this time I plan to leave the hull black and paint the cove stripe. Looks like I'm gonna hafta mix my own gold. Perhaps in the future when there's less on my plate I can think about gilding (amazing technique Jay!)

Evan, we're inked to go cruising downeast the first 2 weeks of August (again, if the rain lets up by then), but if you're here any other time of the month please stop by. I'd love to hear about your island. Actually, I've been thinking of moving my mooring to the New Meadows side and could use some local knowledge, too.

Cheers!

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I buy two rolls of 5/8" "gold" cove line tape from the chandlers, every two or three years. Works fine, takes much less time and is far cheaper.

From five feet away you cannot tell the difference.

Edited to add - I know that, because I am often accused of having the cove line gilded!

[Dan McCosh]

We've been using gold-leaf paint in a routed cove stripe. Seems to last a couple of years or so. I seem to remember we got it in an art-supply store. It also seems to be something other than oil based--dries very quickly. The cove has a relatively sharp edge, which makes it very easy to edge without masking.

[Jay Greer]

Sweet boat! "One Shot" sign writer's paint comes in a shade called false gold. It is the color of lemon gold but contains no metal pigments. I have done many cove strips using "false gold" rather than real leaf. Grand Banks Beige also is a good contrasting color for bulwarks against a black hull as it subtaly lowers the apparent sheer without being too much of a contrast. It then gives the cove stripe more definition.
I like the script lettering on the transom. I think it could stand a little more "snap" which could be enhanced by adding drop shading to give more depth and power to the letters. Will the home port be added in black block letters? That would be a nice touch and give more emphasis to the name script.
Jay

[JimConlin]

Awlgrip gas two decent looking colors- 'cordovan gold' and 'pale gold'.

I won't comment on the technical issues they'd involve.