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

dimeN said:
Hi
if you want the linseed in the stock, just put it in a pressure vessel with some linseed and pull a vacuum on it .... much easier that fooling around with a boiling vat
I've done this hundreds of times for knife handles
Click to expand...
I wonder if this technique could be accomplished using a food-safe style vacuum bagger...seal the stock in the bag with a measure of the oil of your choice?
 
H4831 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Ordered - thanks for the tip.

The shipping was as much as the product, so here's hoping for good results and not just an expensive can collecting dust.
 
H4831 said:
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.
Click to expand...

H3841, this is the milsurp section and no military in the world put Linspeed on a issued military rifle.

On the other hand my first rifle was a .270 Winchester because of reading Jack O'Connor and also enjoy a nicely finished "hunting rifle".

"BUT" In the manual I have for the L42/L39’s Enfield rifles it states the following:

To obtain a uniform colour, woodwork is to be treated with a stain mix from the following ingredients:
4 oz Dye, solution, dark brown oil (H1 (b) / 6020-99-224-0037)
2 gal Linseed oil, raw (H1 (a)/ 8010-99-942-7803)

Mix the dye with the linseed oil and heat to 100 degrees C (212 F for us Americans) Immerse the woodwork in the solution for one hour, remove and drain off over the tank and wipe off surplus. The stain may be applied to handgaurds and other small components with a pad of soft cloth

Linseed oil is to be worked well into the wood. If the woodwork appears dry the items may be soaked in linseed oil , for half an hour. After soaking allow draining off over the tank in cool dry air.

There is a reason why I posted the photo of the wall paper wetting tray, and saturating the Enfield stock with "RAW" linseed oil to keep the stock from drying out and the bedding forces changing in the draws area. It is the difference between a poor shooting Enfield rifle and an accurate Enfield rifle. And the armourers kept the stocks well oiled for a reason.

 
****UPDATE*****
Coat # 4

Here is are the pics of the tung oil screw up. You can see the part that was in the sun polymerized too quickly and make a shiny tackey mess. The face of the block with the "tung" lable was down against the black paint tray (which was hot in the sun and did the same thing):



Here is all four blocks in the order they were cut from the original 1x6 right before coat # 3: (top left: blo, top right: control, bottom left: lin, bottom right: tung). You can see the control has soaked up just a little oil on the edges of the wood where it has been handled. That fresh walnut will suck up any of the finishing oils fast even though my hands had been wiped off (not washed of the linseed) at the time i handled it.


And finally here is all three blocks just before the 4th coat today. 4th coat is on, the tung is still the fastest to soak up the oil, and the blo and raw linseed are slowing down in the rate at which they absorb the oils. All three blocksare starting to feel like they have a slight layer of polymerized oils on them, giving them a bit of a harder texture then the control block. But by layer i really mean the oil soaked into the outer part of the wood feels harder, not a surface layer like we saw on the tung oil screw up. I did fix the tung oil block before the 4th coat with the 0000 steel wool and a little bit of 150 grit sandpaper. I only sanded the 2 sides that got the shiny layer, so there is still 4 un-affected sides. It was obvious during sanding that the tung block has a harder surface then the control. I sanded all the blocks before starting, and this felt much different. The oil tung oil definately made the surface of the wood harder.



Lots of good info on this thread! I started this to try and learn something about the application and properties of these oils. Lots of good info and feed back comming in. Thanks!
 
machman said:
I wonder if this technique could be accomplished using a food-safe style vacuum bagger...seal the stock in the bag with a measure of the oil of your choice?
Click to expand...

I have done this and it works well in my opinion. Just really wet down your stock with raw linseed oil or a mix of raw linseed oil and turpentine to make it thinner to soak in further, faster. Remember to place a big wad of paper towel or something similar at the end that goes into the vaccuum so the oil doesn't get sucked into it and make it smell like oil.

Ian
 
Does anyone have a product name and store to buy a fairly big bottle of raw linseed oil, the good stuff? (enough to fill a wallpaper tray high enough to soak a forend)

Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Home Depot or similar?

I think I'm going to scrap the BLO I was using.

Also, did someone say linseed has a low flash point, as in fire hazard in heating it up?

edit: Just did a search and Home Building Centre has 4 Litre bottles of the good stuff.
 
The last litre bottle of pure raw linseed oil I bought was from Home Depot. This stuff is made by Recochem and the msds sheet confirms it is in fact raw linseed oil and nothing else. It's slightly darker than my small bottle of art store Grumbacher raw linseed oil. Has the same odour and consistency. IIRC it was only about $14 bucks for the litre.

The msds says linseed oil is non-flammable, has an auto-ignition temperature of 342.85C and a flash point (closed cup) of 221.85C. Linseed oil soaked rags can be spontaneously combustible. If crumpled in an enclosed space they can start to burn without a source of flame or spark. To avoid fire hazard rinse oil soaked rags in water and hang to dry or store in a water filled container.
 
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Birchwood casey true oil is also a linseed oil. http://www.cabelas.ca/product/372/birchwood-casey-tru-oil-stock-finish It dries fast and with great results.

DSCF1093_zpsf81467b8.jpg
 
Tru-oil and the previously discussed Lin-Speed have been around for ages and are still excellent stock finishes for a sporter stock. They both contain drying agents and work best when applied in successive thin coats. I have a sportered No 5 JC that I finished with Lin-Speed 50 yrs ago and it still looks good. I've also used Minwax tung oil finish, again a commercial preparation with drying agents, and it works well. For an authentic military stock finish it's either raw linseed or pure tung oil.
 
purple said:
Tru-oil and the previously discussed Lin-Speed have been around for ages and are still excellent stock finishes for a sporter stock. They both contain drying agents and work best when applied in successive thin coats. I have a sportered No 5 JC that I finished with Lin-Speed 50 yrs ago and it still looks good. I've also used Minwax tung oil finish, again a commercial preparation with drying agents, and it works well. For an authentic military stock finish it's either raw linseed or pure tung oil.
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Many commie rifles have a finish that looks the same as the true oil finish. It is a different look than the "authentic military stock finish" but it is correct.
 
machman said:
I wonder if this technique could be accomplished using a food-safe style vacuum bagger...seal the stock in the bag with a measure of the oil of your choice?
Click to expand...

It won't do much at all I'm afraid. The idea of a PROPER vacuum chamber is that you immerse the stock in the finish, oil in this case, then draw a good vacuum amount. The vacuum in the chamber causes the air in the wood to expand and bubble out of the surface. Once it's bubbled away from the wood you release the vacuum and the air pressure forces the oil into the wood with something like 12 to 14 PSI of pressure depending on how good your vacuum setup is.

But the method needs a CHAMBER instead of a plastic bag. All you'll do with the bag is suck away the oil itself. There will be very little to push the oil into the wood. Then factor in the fact that these bagging vacuums only pull a couple of PSI worth of vacuum to boot. It's a far cry from a proper chamber and vacuum pump.
 
BCRider said:
It won't do much at all I'm afraid. The idea of a PROPER vacuum chamber is that you immerse the stock in the finish, oil in this case, then draw a good vacuum amount. The vacuum in the chamber causes the air in the wood to expand and bubble out of the surface. Once it's bubbled away from the wood you release the vacuum and the air pressure forces the oil into the wood with something like 12 to 14 PSI of pressure depending on how good your vacuum setup is.

But the method needs a CHAMBER instead of a plastic bag. All you'll do with the bag is suck away the oil itself. There will be very little to push the oil into the wood. Then factor in the fact that these bagging vacuums only pull a couple of PSI worth of vacuum to boot. It's a far cry from a proper chamber and vacuum pump.
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Never realized they had chambers to do this kind of finishing.. makes sense ..
 
notta big deal to pull a vacuum ... you don't need a lab set up
heres my old set up for knife handle slabs
http://primalfires.yuku.com/reply/5526/Stabilizer#reply-5526

you could use a large steel pipe and weld a cap on the bottom .... put a silicon gasket on the top... fill with linseed oil
put a flat clean iron plate on top and put some clamps on it

you easily get penetration in a 2 inch thick block of wood ... but it takes a long time to dry
 
That is awesome!

dimeN said:
notta big deal to pull a vacuum ... you don't need a lab set up
heres my old set up for knife handle slabs
http://primalfires.yuku.com/reply/5526/Stabilizer#reply-5526

you could use a large steel pipe and weld a cap on the bottom .... put a silicon gasket on the top... fill with linseed oil
put a flat clean iron plate on top and put some clamps on it

you easily get penetration in a 2 inch thick block of wood ... but it takes a long time to dry
Click to expand...
 
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