eugene@auvax.UUCP (Eugene Rubin) (01/26/84)
In my opinion, Linseed Oil is appropriate for general wood finishing
only if several precautions are taken:
1. Use BOILED LINSEED OIL only. If you purchase raw linseed oil, it
has to be processed to be useful. This is fine for the real
enthusiast, but a pain for the occasional user. You can buy
boiled easily with hardly any difference in price.
2. Thin the oil with turpentine or another finish (i.e.tung oil)
so that it will penetrate the wood... otherwise it just sits on
the surface (particularly with dense hardwoods). I have found
that 50-50 for the first coat seems to work O.K. You can
decrease the turps component on later coats.
3. Be prepared to have to refinish on a regular basis (every 3-6
months). The wood seems to dry out when you use Linseed oil.
4. Add a dryer to the solution. These are known as Japan Driers and
they cause the oil to polimerize and bond with the wood. Watco
Danish Oil has these driers and when dry, claims to increase the
hardness of the wood by 25%. If you don't add the driers, then
oil will continually rise to the surface and "weep" for a long
period of time.
The question of which is better, Tung oil or Linseed oil is best
answered by knowing the answers to several other questions. Is cost
the primary consideration? If so, perhaps Linseed Oil is best.... but
in general, I believe cost should take a back seat to durability,
surface characteristics, and ease of application. If you are doing
production work, I would use the easiest method of application, the
shortest drying time, combined with the nicest surface finish. Thus,
I personally use Watco. While it doesn't have the best surface
characteristics, its very convenient. With Tung Oil, there can be
drying problems and "weeping" problems which slow down things a bit,
since if you don't wipe the surface clean fairly often, the small
drops of oil which form on the surface can harden.
To illustrate the complexity of your question, ask it of 10
woodworkers and you'll get 10 different answers. Everyone seems to
have a different favorite choice. I would strongly recommend that the
asker of such a question read back issues of Fine Woodworking...
particularly in the letters column to see how varied the answers would
be. Also, there was an article (a year or two ago?) about the
compatibility of various finishes which would bear on the question.
Gene Rubin <auvax!eugene>
Athabasca University