Danish Oil

Arch:

Thanks for the compliment. I really don't have a lot to say on BLO, in my limited experience with it it tended to darken light woods more than tung. Never used either by itself, always in a mixture with polyurethane varnish and some sort of solvent.

Kip Powers Rogers, AR

Yea, that's almost the exact same thing I read. It was probably taken from that book.

Tung oil is soooo nice... But you have to get the pure stuff and mix it yourself. It goes on really smooth... it never gets blotchy... you can put as much of it on as you want. If you want it to go deeper into the wood you just use more thinner... it you want a thicker, glossier surface finish, you just use less thinner. It dries really fast, smells great, and cleans up easily. It lasts forever and if you notice you missed a spot or something you can touch up right in your living room with very little smell (depending on how much thinner you use) I also recomend trying a 50/50 thinner - tung oil mixture and then sanding with fine wet/dry sand paper. Like 2000+ grit... or even a scotch pad. You can get an almost glass like finish on hard woods like figured maple.

Hey Arch. What newer finishing oils are there?

"They" are discovering today that flaxseed and flax oil is good for the cardiovascular system - BTW, nothing beats the sight of a linen sundress strolling by during the dog days.

I prefer BLO over tung for much of my work. I've got a bottle of pure tung oil but likely won't replace it once it's gone. For my woodworking I feel BLO does a better job of popping the chatoyance - whether as a first finish under shellac or lacquer or as a component in my homade Danish oil using BLO, naptha and a short-oil varnish.

When I make an item for food contact, I'll use a food oil like olive or walnut oil.

Also a study where lab rodents fed on flaxseed had lower rates of prostate cancer.

Ever notice how difficult it is to run down raw data on those crowd-pleaser health studies?

I prefer a properly-filled halter top, personally....

Finally found one reference to what I've noticed about tung, other than the scent, which I don't like.

have been Chris who had a comparison of transparency showing cured tungand linseed on glass to demonstrate what he calls "frost." Seems to myfading memory it was in the black and white days of FWW, perhaps in mymissing issue 33 that the author mentioned polymer size in tung and inthen-current water-borne finishes as having light-scattering dimensions. At any rate, my sense of sight might be as faulty as my sense of smell, which detects tung where others deny its presence, but when I see a frosty piece and ask if it was finished with tung oil, the answer is invariably "yes."

Frosty? No way... Remember that 99% of all "Tung oil" sold in stores is NOT tung oil and rarely contains any tung oil at all. "Formby's tung oil" (the most popular) is actually just varnish... I used it and it looked horrible.

You absolutely have to get 100% pure Tung oil and mix it yourself.

I think he means "Newer" to the west. Like Tung oil... Tung oil has been used in China for a very long time but it is fairly new in the USA.

Ahhh, ok. I was wondering. The (red or black) oaks or other dark woods won't show the darkening effects of the oil as much as the lighter woods such as the maple you mentioned. That's one effect that often catches people off-guard.

The same happened in this area when a woodworking store opened up a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, they just closed down a month ago. It improved the woodworking, carving, turning, etc. atmosphere and gave many of us a focal point but I guess it just wasn't enough to support the business.

Have you given the Maloof types of finishes a try? The kind of finish is more "in the wood" rather than the plastic-y, artificial finish of just poly or lacquer. It gives the benefits of the ingredients and allows you to build your finish up to the level you want.

Yeah, Tung does a pretty good job. I use it both alone and alot in my finishes. I buy pure carnauba emulsions by the 55-gal drum from my distributor in Brazil and beeswax locally 25 lbs at a time. I tend to use a variety of finishes as well.

Not sure what you're doing with the BLO or where you're buying it but you shouldn't have a problem with it "turn to Goo" once applied to the wood at any time unless it's gone bad. It does have a shelf-life before use. Like I said before, straight BLO isn't the best choice everytime today but it still has its uses. Have you tried substituting Walnut oil for the Olive Oil? It's at least a semi-drying oil.

- Andrew

What kind of Tung Oil are you using that "dries really fast" ? As compared to what? Mineral Oil? Pure Tung Oil (solvents/thinners added or not) takes awhile to cure. A long while. Perhaps you are using Polymerized Tung Oil instead of the straight Pure? I, too, like the smell of Tung Oil. Not everyone does though. Too bad. It does a good job of "lasting" once applied and cured (because it does actually cure). But, it does have a shelf-life of about 10-12 months in-the-can. You can extend that a little with storage techniques though.

- Andrew

I believe he *was* talking about Pure Tung Oil. It has a tendency, mostly when nearing its shelf-life, to form a white powdery surface once cured. When mixed with other ingredients, like varnishes, poly's or whatever else clear film building finish, it can show up sometimes as a frosty cast. You have to use fresh stuff. It's not synthetic.

- Andrew

As compared to it's use in China for many centuries, yes, it's use is pretty new to the USA but....

It's been used here in the USA (actually, before there even was a USA of any sort) but on limited basis in the marine and surrounding areas for related wood furniture finishing needs. Before that, starting around the 14th century, it was used in the Western nations pretty heavily. That's, of course, how it's use was naturally transfered, albeit in limited industries, here to the USA. It was a VERY highly prized product for the shipyards in the western nations at that time.

Varnishes made with China Wood Oil really started around the turn of the

20th century in the marine trade and the Tung Oil quickly was adopted by the automotive, paint, wood furniture, and machine trades around the 1920's but dried up (pun intended) at the start of WWII because China stopped shipping it here and also because we started developing synthetic and alkyd resin based varnishes.

It's a neat oil that really hasn't been reproduced synthetically yet. If the tree weren't so blasted difficult to grow, I'd love to have one growing in the backyard. It'd be cool to press my own Tung Oil ... might get a few ounces out of one tree after about 10 years of growth.

- Andrew

I can't add anything to the discussion other than three observations about oil finishes.

The 1st is that it is most likely that the Danish Oil in the original question contained neither Linseed nor Tung oils. Most products that are called Danish Oils (like Watco) are made with Soybean Oil and a lot of drying agent to make it cure. Because it is better?? No, because it is cheaper and has a longer storage life, and less likely to have a spontaneous combustion.

The 2nd is that, unless we can squeeze and process the oil ourselves, nothing is as labeled. Unlike the food industry, there are no Federal Regulations to define "pure" for finishing products.

The 3rd is that the manufacturers have figured many ways to sell products that are nothing more than a little oil, a lot of thinner, and sometimes some varnish resins.

Russ Fairfield Post Falls, Idaho

In summary then, after a long thread of helpful posts: Unless we make it ourselves, we all use the same oil finish.....Snake Oil. Arch

(Warning: commercial snake oil contains no snakes, it's mostly grubs and worms.)

Fortiter,