Hello
No problem, no trade secrets here! I refinished an SVT 40 stock and I wanted to achieve the 'milsurp' look, so that meant using linseed oil. Having a background in museum Conservation techniques (including chemistry), I researched what factors influence the drying time and quality of finish of linseed oil. Aside from the normal refinishing practices ( surface prep, humidity, ect ) I discovered there are 2 main variables that will speed up the cure time of linseed oil - exposure to oxygen and ultra violet 'A' light (UVA).
Supplying oxygen was no problem, that just meant setting up some fans pointed at the stock. But what about an affordable, readily available source of UVA light?
Well, there is the Sun...but that was not what I was trying to do with my little experiment, and this was done in the middle of winter, so setting them outside was not an option.
I looked into all sorts of commercial and industrial UV bulbs, but I found that A) I could find great manufacturer data to support the UVA output claim, but the bulbs were ridiculously expensive or B) Absolutely no evidence aside from the manufacturer claiming it did, but the bulbs were cheap. And then I saw a commercial for a pet store that showed a lizard on a rock under a bulb and I knew I had found my source.
So what I did was go to the pet store and bought some lizard aquarium heat bulbs. There are many types of light bulbs on the market that claim to produce UVA,UVB and UVC, but I found that because the products sold in the pet industry are subject to one form or another of Government regulated standards, the UV emitting bulbs sold in pet stores had the most readily available supporting documents to quantify their advertised UVA emissions, and they were affordable ($10-30).
I took the bulbs (100W) , set them up in some old photography flood lights, set up some fans, turned off the other lights (so that the only light was UVA), placed the stock over some mirrors ( to bounce the light into all the nooks and crannies) and let it 'dry' overnight. And it worked.
As a control, I used 1 stock that was similar in wood density, subjected to the same refinishing techniques and products but I did not use the UVA/directed fans drying technique on it.
The next day the stock that was subjected to the UVA/directed fans was dry to the touch, the one that was not was still very tacky. I found that I could rapidly build up coats of real, raw linseed oil in a fraction of the time using this technique as compared to letting it dry the conventional way.
So there you go! Some UVA emitting lizard bulbs from Petland, 4 fans from Value Village, some mirrors and some old spotlights and you can drastically reduce the drying time of raw linseed oil finishes.
Here’s a link to something similar –
https://oricalcum.uk/blogs/updates/52222147-linseed-oil-paint-drying-times-and-uv-light
73
Brookwood
