deck planking options

[manning16]

Hello all-

  Building the Winchelsea.. cherry version.. I would like to plank the deck in another wood.. I have swiss pear, boxwood,  spruce, basswood,  and holly. I would finish with tung oil or wipe on satin poly.  Any suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

[RossR]

I haven’t had the pleasure of working with most of the woods you are listing, but with those options I would leave basswood off the list.   

[Pirate adam]

Pear, boxwood, and holly would all work great depending on the look you are going for. I would recommend looking through the various build logs and seeing if there is a certain look you like more than others.  I would probably go with wipe on poly vs tung for some of the lighter woods, as it can give a bit of an orangish hue over time that probably isn’t what you are going for.  I definitely love the look of tung oil on pear or cherry. 
 

Adam

[Dziadeczek]

I always use holly for my decks - it gives this very light, almost eggshell color. Once I used beech, I remember - for its speckled texture, perfectly imitating oak (in scale). Boxwood is also OK (pricey, though) It depends on how you intend to show your decks, if you want them to look new, use holly, if darker, use other fruit woods, pear or even apple...

You can see on the attached pics how my decks look like next to cherry hull planking, on my recently finished model of the French 74 gunner of 1780 (from Boudriot).

 

For finish, I use one layer of Danish oil, applied with a brush and let it dry (but tung is also OK). It will slightly darken and accentuate the color of the wood, but after a while it will nicely fade.

 

[manning16]

Thanks  guys for the input....those holly decks look tempting.. decisions decisions..will have to do test strips  holly is in Fl and my pear and box are in NY!

[Gregory]

I think boxwood would give a nice contrast .  The holly is too bright for my taste.  

 

Do a little testing and see what you like best.

[barkeater]

Here's beech for comparison

[Ronald-V]

5 hours ago, Gregory said:

I think boxwood would give a nice contrast .  The holly is too bright for my taste.  

 

Do a little testing and see what you like best.

Yes...I think boxwood as well, It's a bit closer to the cherry color, which, in my opinion, makes it look more cohesive. Although cherry isn't a pear, you might be interested in Blue Ensign's HMS Sphinx. That's a combination of pear and boxwood. It gives the whole thing a slightly softer look. Unless you're someone who prefers stronger contrasts...then holly might be a better idea.

[KennyH78]

I like the look of the holly against the cherry; but that is just my humble opinion.  I like the contrast of the two woods together.  Although the boxwood would give the model a nice subtle look on the other hand.  

As others have suggested, do some testing to see which looks better to you.

[manning16]

Thanks again everyone for your opinions!

[bigcreekdad]

I've used maple and have been quite satisfied.

[manning16]

 I have some rock maple that I cut from old mitre boxes,  milled it for  the deck planking with the Byrnes saw and thickness sander..looks pretty good..did you use rock (hard) maple?  I have too many options at this point, but narrowing it to maple or boxwood for Winchelsea decking.