Linseed Oil, Boiled Linseed Oil, and Tung. Head to Head Test!

Any craft store that sells art supplies normally sells artist grade linseed oils for oil painting, this is all I use because of its quality.
(Please note the names and types)

Cold Press Linseed Oil
http://www.dickblick.com/products/gamblin-cold-press-linseed-oil/

Refined Linseed Oil
http://www.dickblick.com/products/gamblin-refined-linseed-oil/

Stand Oil (real boiled linseed oil)
http://www.dickblick.com/products/gamblin-stand-oil/

Tung Oil Wood Finishes (I have both tung oils below)
http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html

http://www.realmilkpaint.com/dark_oil.html

Years ago in other Enfield forums I posted about the different type oil finishes.

First place winner, non-toxic pure raw linseed oil.



The contestants.



A wall paper wetting tray was used to soak my stocks in a 50/50 mix of RLO and turpentine.

 
The pre-petroleum age mixture of 1/3 raw linseed oil, 1/3 beeswax and 1/3 turpentine was used by the lady of the house as furniture polish. It was also used by her husband to protect his rifle from the elements. During the American civil war this same 1/3 mixture was used as cosmoline for weapons in storage.

Too many people today forget the old methods our forefathers used and didn't spend and arm and a leg making it at home.

NOTE: The first thing applied to a new wooden canoe is a 50/50 mix of raw linseed oil and turpintine to keep the wood from drying out and the canoe from sinking. ;)

Excellent quality posts bigedp51 and jimenez; this is a great thread. Thank you. It is quality reads like these that keep me in CGN.
 
I don't want to hijack the thread - so sorry if it looks that way, but I think my questuion is on topic.

If you wanted to stain some wood before oiling (alcohol based I'm sure) would there be one of these oiling methods that does the LEAST amount of change to the colour of the stain? I just don't want to find the perfect colour (will likely need to mix my own, which is fine because I do it all the time with leather stains), apply it, love the results, and then change it too much inadvertently when doing an oil finish. Regardless, I'm thinking that to get the right colour you would want to finish a shade or 2 lighter than your desired end product, as oil finished will do some darkening. Just wondering if there is a finish that is 'clearer' than most.
 
If applying stain to a stock I would recommend using a oil based stain due to the fact that the alcohol stain is extremely fast drying and best used sprayed it is really hard to work with a rag just my opinion being a wood finisher for the last 10 years Just make sure you let the oil based stain dry before applying the finish or it may look milky
 
Many people strip the stock and in the process remove the acquired age and patina of the wood. If this is done then its up to your "eye" when staining the wood to duplicate the original color. All military stocks become darker with age so its up to you to decide how "old" your stock is. Meaning a new stock would be much lighter than one dragged through the mud of Flanders fields.

Bottom line, each stock will be different depending on the wood and grain and will darken with the application of oil and age. A collector will hate you for stripping the stock and a shooter will say you did a nice job on your wood.

A conservator in a museum cleans the wood on antique firearms with a 50/50 mix of raw linseed oil and turpentine. A small area is cleaned at a time and the area is moistened with the 50/50 mix and rubbed with a lint free cloth, a heat lamp is also used to bring the impurities to the surface. This is done until the majority of surface dirt and contaminates are removed.

The metal parts of the firearm are cleaned with olive oil and a soft tooth brush. This may require soaking overnight but NO other harsher methods are used. After the metal has been cleaned it is waxed with a neutral PH wax to protect the metal from air and moisture.

At the other end of the spectrum Bubba puts his stock in the dishwasher, sands the crap out of the wood and puts polyurethane on it to make the wood pretty.

Bedding is critical on the Enfield fore stock and you want the draws area to be a tight fit. Restoring the raw linseed oil will cause the wood to swell and may save you from having to shim the draws area.

There is a very good reason why the military used raw linseed oil, it wasn't to make them look good it was used to keep them functional.
 
When dealing with old military stocks there will always be some residual oils in the wood, even after a complete stripping. An alcohol based stain, like a leather dye, works best on these ones. No matter which of BLO/RLO/PTO is used, the key to success is several applications with the oils wiped completely from the surface of the wood 10 minutes or so after application. You want the oil to dry IN the wood, not ON the wood where it will dry slowly and form a gummy mess.

For those who want to replicate what the US/Brit/Cdn military did, the initial wood finish was by immersion in RLO with subsequent maintenance by applications of RLO. BLO was not used by the military. In the case of US stock production in WW2, pure tung oil was used for the initial treatment. Soaking in RLO can be very helpful in expanding and tightening up the fit of wooden pistol grips, such as those on the P08 Luger.

I can attest that the Cdn Army did use RLO to re-condition and maintain the wooden stocks on the FN rifles. We used to get it from commercial purchase in the large tin cans to recondition stocks after a spell in the field or at other times when needed-like getting things spiffy for parades.
 
I don't want to hijack the thread - so sorry if it looks that way, but I think my questuion is on topic.

If you wanted to stain some wood before oiling (alcohol based I'm sure) would there be one of these oiling methods that does the LEAST amount of change to the colour of the stain? I just don't want to find the perfect colour (will likely need to mix my own, which is fine because I do it all the time with leather stains), apply it, love the results, and then change it too much inadvertently when doing an oil finish. Regardless, I'm thinking that to get the right colour you would want to finish a shade or 2 lighter than your desired end product, as oil finished will do some darkening. Just wondering if there is a finish that is 'clearer' than most.

Just add your stain to some of your tung oil or linseed oil, works well and penetrates as deep as the regular linseed oil finish.
 
Interesting thought. Now, if I were planning on doing an oil finish in multiple coats, I assume only the first would need the stain in it. I'll do some experimenting.
 
This is interesting. keep it coming.

I used lee Valley Tung Oil to re-finish a Noirnco 22 rifle. It looks MUCH better and has stood up well. The finish is somewhat glossy.

I have just built a 12' x 24' wood patio deck using pressure treated wood. I am wondering if BLO would be a good finish to apply?
 
I believe a BLO finish will darken the wood the least.

Tru oil darkened my walnut shotgun stock considerably. Went from beige to brown with no stain.

BLO only barely darkened my enfield - went from blond to light orange. (birch stock)

I have done some reading that states tung oil will darken a little more than linseed.

I'd like to share a forum link I found while looking at tung oil finishes and stains..

http://www.bayoushooter.com/forums/showthread.php?91594-HELP-Where-can-I-find-100-Tung-oil

and this gorgeous image of some mosin nagants .. tung oil on top, BLO below. Of course, the weapon on top has a much nicer stock, but the OP in that thread preferred the tung oil finish.

Ganderite : for a high traffic zone like a deck I would steer away from BLO and try a more durable finish.
 
Linseed oil was used for 150 years on wood siding on external surfaces, until some type of synthetic material took the place of wood siding.
Best way to preserve the wood was with a good quality linseed oil stain on the outside, but each siding board was first painted with linseed oil on the back, or inner side, before it was nailed on the wall.
Before painting the inside of the board, the linseed oil was mixed 50-50 with turpentine, then put on cold. It is now common to mix with a synthetic type mineral spirit, but since turpentine originates from a tree, I think turpentine is the preferred mixer and with the mix put on cold, it may be just as good, or probably better, than putting pure linseed oil on hot. It was claimed the mixture of turpentine and linseed oil would keep working its way through the board, until it met the stain put on the others side.

I had some of this mixed Linseed oil and Turpentine a few years ago...problem was I couldn't stand the smell of the Turpentine in the house. Nasty stuff.

We don't all have nice external heated shops sadly.
 
Yes, turpentine has a lingering aroma.
The best oil finish for gun stocks has so far not been mentioned. Linspeed Oil, a patented trade name of George Brothers (GB).
It is just linseed oil, altered in the lab to dry fast, but retain all the good features of linseed oil. In the early 1950s Jack O'Connor sang its praises in his articles as shooting editor of Outdoor Life Magazine. Because a great many of us hung on every word of Jack O'Connor, it soon became very popular.
Speaking as one who has done his share of amateur stock finishing/refinishing I can attest to the ease of application and the great finishes obtained with Linspeed Oil. My supply ran out in the 1970s and I couldn't find any more.
Then, after the age of personal computers I looked it up, and sure enough there it was.
http://www.lin-speed.com/
I doubt if anybody who has used it will say there is any better stock finish.
 
Looks very similar in concept to Tru Oil, though I don't doubt it came along first :) Shame their website looks like an as-seen-on-tv ad.

I tried mixing linseed oil with mineral spirits with good results. Indoors, even! Low odour.
 
Hey guys sorry about the lack of updates for the last few days. Been on the road with work, but home tomorrow. I will recoat all of them again and post pictures of my tung oil screw up. I will hit that one with the 0000 steel wool to take off the polymerized surface oil. A trip to the hobby store is in order too to see some prices on the better oils out there.

Cheers

PS went to a Wisconsin gun store yesterday for kicks... Springield M1A NM walnut stock.... 1600 bucks. A customer was looking at it complaining about the price. I think CSC just listed a few of those for 3300 CDN!
 
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