Boiling Linseed Oil?
- Thread starter sixty9santa
- Start date
Boiled linseed oil doesn't mean that you boil the stuff! What it does mean is that there are drying ingredients added, which differenciates it from raw linseed oil. I don't know where the name comes from.
http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/index.php?p=industrial2&mp=industrial
http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/index.php?p=industrial2&mp=industrial
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BLO gives a flat finish. Buy it, don't bother trying to boil it yourself. Tung oil, properly applied, gives a shiny finish.
Polyurethane, Varathane and other plastic finishes are for cheap furniture not rifle stocks. Scratch one and you need to completely refinish the stock. Scratch an oil finished stock and you just rub in more oil.
Polyurethane, Varathane and other plastic finishes are for cheap furniture not rifle stocks. Scratch one and you need to completely refinish the stock. Scratch an oil finished stock and you just rub in more oil.
I used to make boiled linseed oil, people on this site are correct when they say it is just linseed oil with driers added.
If you have 20 year old oil in all likely hood the driers have flashed off, what you can do is try it on a piece of scrap wood and see if it dries properly, if the driers have flashed off it will not dry.
WORD OF CAUTION
Both linseed oil and tung oil may spontaneously combust if they are stored with combustible materials such as rags or wood dust.
Make sure you handle the product correctly
If you have 20 year old oil in all likely hood the driers have flashed off, what you can do is try it on a piece of scrap wood and see if it dries properly, if the driers have flashed off it will not dry.
WORD OF CAUTION
Both linseed oil and tung oil may spontaneously combust if they are stored with combustible materials such as rags or wood dust.
Make sure you handle the product correctly
Undergiver
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sturgeon County, AB
Have you tried Birchwood Casey's True Oil ?
A lot of these oils come in four catagories that you need to be on the lookout for:
1) edible versions, these work well for finishing, walnut oil is very useful, for instance. Some of these oils have anti-oxidants added to then in accordance with current health fads. So amended, they won't dry and are useless.
2) basic oil, often dry far too slowly to be practical. One can add Japan dries to these, or mix them with varnish to blend propeties including drying speed, and water spot proofness.
3) Boiled or polymerizing versions. Boiled linseed oil was heated in the past. Perhaps it's all chenicals today, but pure boiled oil will harden better than raw, and is used extensively in preparing varnishes and paints, Modern stuff may have driers added or one can proceed as already mentioned by mixing with a product that has driers in it. One recipee I have mentions adding 5% japan drier to boiled linseed. Metalic driers may be poisonous so be careful about using them, or unknown stuff, on kid or food ware. Even with driers, one is supposed to rest a stock done in lin for a month between coats. Lin was used on Best guns, so I guess it's good enough, but you need patience, or a long off season.
4) Short vanishes. These range from home made concoctions to all those products that proclaim "Tung Oil varnish". As mentioned above there can be almost anything it these products. My 2 favorite commercial products are Birchwood Casey's oil stock finish which is so good some guitar makers use it, and watco, not so much for guns but in general. A favorite home brew is maloof finish, which is 1/3rd boiled linseed, 1/3rd polymerising tung oil (the boiled linseed of tung oils), 1/3 valspar OIL varnish. This concoction has it all: shine from the lin; hard oil performance from the tung; and driers and water mark proofers from the valspar.
5) Varnishes or paints use these oils as their bases, traditionally.
1) edible versions, these work well for finishing, walnut oil is very useful, for instance. Some of these oils have anti-oxidants added to then in accordance with current health fads. So amended, they won't dry and are useless.
2) basic oil, often dry far too slowly to be practical. One can add Japan dries to these, or mix them with varnish to blend propeties including drying speed, and water spot proofness.
3) Boiled or polymerizing versions. Boiled linseed oil was heated in the past. Perhaps it's all chenicals today, but pure boiled oil will harden better than raw, and is used extensively in preparing varnishes and paints, Modern stuff may have driers added or one can proceed as already mentioned by mixing with a product that has driers in it. One recipee I have mentions adding 5% japan drier to boiled linseed. Metalic driers may be poisonous so be careful about using them, or unknown stuff, on kid or food ware. Even with driers, one is supposed to rest a stock done in lin for a month between coats. Lin was used on Best guns, so I guess it's good enough, but you need patience, or a long off season.
4) Short vanishes. These range from home made concoctions to all those products that proclaim "Tung Oil varnish". As mentioned above there can be almost anything it these products. My 2 favorite commercial products are Birchwood Casey's oil stock finish which is so good some guitar makers use it, and watco, not so much for guns but in general. A favorite home brew is maloof finish, which is 1/3rd boiled linseed, 1/3rd polymerising tung oil (the boiled linseed of tung oils), 1/3 valspar OIL varnish. This concoction has it all: shine from the lin; hard oil performance from the tung; and driers and water mark proofers from the valspar.
5) Varnishes or paints use these oils as their bases, traditionally.
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
The trick with Birchwood Casey is to put a little on the wood and then rub the living daylights out of it with your hand. DO NOT try to cover the entire stock at one go, but rather do it in sections THIN COATS! don't slobber it on.
It will look like #### for the first few coats until the pores are filled. If you want a satin finish, once it starts looking shiny, go over the finish with very fine steel wool between coats to cut the gloss.
Oh by the way ALL those enfields were finished with linsed oil, NOT tung oil.
It will look like #### for the first few coats until the pores are filled. If you want a satin finish, once it starts looking shiny, go over the finish with very fine steel wool between coats to cut the gloss.
Oh by the way ALL those enfields were finished with linsed oil, NOT tung oil.
Once a year I remove the barrels and apply BLO to the inside of my stocks with as much as they'll absorb to feed & nourish the wood.
I like B-C Tru-Oil as a finish but after CanAm's comments & Win94's pics (great job) I'm going to try Minwax Tung Oil to refinish a project I have in mind; thanks guys.
I like B-C Tru-Oil as a finish but after CanAm's comments & Win94's pics (great job) I'm going to try Minwax Tung Oil to refinish a project I have in mind; thanks guys.
