Finishing

"Stockholm tar", pine tar that is, has been made for thousands of years. The name Stockholm Tar has a centuries old history. Tar was mainly made in Finland (which was a part of Sweden those days) but as it was all sold through Stockholm, the name came and stayed. The poor Swedes had burned most of their forests with their iron industry they came over to the periphery (Finland) and bought our forests in form of tar.

Why should anyone impregnate a boat with any kind of oil?

The biggest problem of wooden boats is that wood is a living material and it expands and contracts with the moisture. To minimize this, the boatbuilder has to find means to keep the wood as stable as possible.

To build a new wooden boat, you can use epoxy for ease of use and performance. Or then use the traditional methods which don't require using epoxy at all. If one has thick enough and good enough lumber I can't see a reason to use epoxy on a small boat. Everything can be done without glue, and if the boat is done without glue it's always easier to repair or replace a damaged piece when you don't have to fight with glued seams.That was the idea with classics: when something was broken you could pull the broken piece out and replace it. It just doesn't do with epoxied structures.