Using Rubio Monocoat for a handrail?

[Eric the Viking]

I'm doing a RogerS in my own little way...

... well, I'm not really, but I am having a new baluster installed, and I'll be doing the handrail.

It's going across a 7ft wide window on the last flight of our staircase, to prevent small grandchildren from coming to harm should they veer off the right path when climbing or descending.

I don't have any handrail wreaths to carve, only the end pieces where rail meets window reveal, and a couple of mitres. The profile is being run for me in Sapele (I don't have a way to make it), and I'm wondering what to finish it with.

I'm leaning towards Roubio for the usual reasons: maintainability, ease of application, etc., but I'm running short of time, and not keen on waiting 14+ days for it to harden before I can fit the rail.

I think I need something more than just paste wax, as it'll be in a bright window, and sunlight has destroyed the stair carpet, so will probably try to bleach the Sapele too.

I think one advantage of Rubio ought to be the ability to tweak it a bit darker if necessary, at a later date.

So is Rubio a good choice? Would I be better off with something like Tung oil (which will still take a while to go off, of course). And could anyybody share experiences of using the Rubio accelerator, too - I'll use that if it works well...

All thoughts welcome.

E.

PS: When the grandchildren aren't invading, the staircase has pretty light traffic.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Rustin's Plastic Coating. It's near indestructible and quick drying. Stinks for a day or two, but nothing like as long as polyurethane. You can can easily dull it if you don't like the shine, of course you can start with satin which is a bit flatter. I could show you a bar counter I did which is now showing noticeable wear on the edges ........... it was done in 1988.

 

[Woodster]

I just looked at the Rubio Monocoat. Do they offer mortgages or easy payment terms on their products?! :lol:

 

[Trevanion]

I just looked at the Rubio Monocoat. Do they offer mortgages or easy payment terms on their products?! :lol:

It goes a ridiculously long way if used correctly and you typically only need one coat (hence monocoat) for an excellent finish with great wear characteristics.

I recently used it for the internal faces of twenty or so oak casement windows instead of Osmo and it worked great, and I only needed about 1 litre to do the whole job which was quite impressive, especially with the silky finish you got from just a single coat. Osmo Polyx tends to need two or even three coats before it's that good, while the product is a fair amount cheaper than Rubio it just doesn't go as far and you spend a lot more time messing with it to get a good finish.

To do a whole staircase you'd literally need only one of the 350ml pots I reckon.

 

[Woodster]

£92 a litre is still a lot of money for Linseed Oil and Wax! :lol:

 

[Eric the Viking]

Thanks everyone.

Phil, I had a look at the Rustin's Plastic Coating, and it's certainly ideal for some other projects, but in this case I only need a tiny amount, and wasn't after the high-gloss you can achieve with it.

I've got a couple of test pots of Rubio, and the smallest pot of accelerator* for it I can get, too, and I'll try it on some offcuts of handrail before committing. I can't get back to this before May now, as I'm committed to other domestic stuff first (and I haven't collected the rail from the merchant yet, either).

One of the test pots is 'Walnut' and the other the uncoloured version. I"m fairly certain that a single pot would be sufficient, but I'm hoping using a darker finish mixed in might accentuate the grain a bit. I think of Sapele as a nice-but-fairly-characterless Mahogany substitute, and a dark finish (almost wiped off) might help.

All the inputs much appreciated.

E.
*The accelerator speeds the drying time a bit, mixed in at 30% of the main coating.