Application of BLO

[Adam Cruea]

Finally. . .onto the finishing stages of my bench. Well, just the base for now.

Anyway, I just figured I'd get some suggestions, opinions, and tales about how y'all finish stuff when it comes to BLO. Do you just go for a single coat and that's it? Double coat? I know for teak oil you want to do about 5-7 applications, but I've never seen such a thing for BLO.

My father loaned me a couple of books on finishing from Flexner, and what I have discerned is that one coat will do it unless I want a super-smooth surface.

Anyways, opinions, tales, warnings, and suggestions welcome.

[Jim Belair]

A single coat of BLO will look like crap since different parts of the wood absorb different amounts. My copy of Flexner says 3-4 coats which is what I usually use.

And don't forget the oil soaked rags can burn your house down.

Oops- missed that this is for a bench. Sorry. Others will have to chime in as I have no experience with BLO on a bench top. I'd still use more than one coat on the base components.

[george wilson]

Be careful to not over finish the bench. A coat or 2 will be enough to seal the surface and make it easier to get glue and other stuff to come loose.

[Dale Cruea]

Son, ALL rags should be taken outside as soon as you are finished with them. NEVER allow a rag to lay waded up. Lay ALL rags out flat as soon as you lay them down.
I like to put my soaked rags in a bucket with water, outside for the night then lay out flat to dry, OUTSIDE.

[Prashun Patel]

Personally I would mix a little poly, varnish,, or wax in with the blo. I think you will get better protection.

[Harold Burrell]

Personally I would mix a little poly, varnish,, or wax in with the blo. I think you will get better protection.

OK...I am VERY interested in this thread as I am in the process of building a Roubo style bench out of Douglas Fir. Prashun, please elaborate on what you would recommend exactly (and remember...you're talking to a someone who is "finishingly challenged".)

[Adam Cruea]

Son, ALL rags should be taken outside as soon as you are finished with them. NEVER allow a rag to lay waded up. Lay ALL rags out flat as soon as you lay them down.
I like to put my soaked rags in a bucket with water, outside for the night then lay out flat to dry, OUTSIDE.

I drape them over a clamp in front of a fan to get the heat off the rag. In a day or two they usually end up crusty.

Prashun> I actually thought about that for the top. Mainly because I'm an idiot and spill coffee while working, and I don't want to stain the top of my bench with coffee rings. The problem is, I don't want something that will end up making a slick surface and/or impossible to plane surface.

[george wilson]

I actually saw oily rags someone put into the trash can in the cabinet shop start to smoke. The whole place would have gone up like a tenderbox if a fire had started.

[Rodney Walker]

When I was younger, my dad almost lost his boat to oily rags. IIRC it was teak oil we were using on the woodwork. When we were done for the day we left the rags in the cabin. Luckily someone saw the smoke before things got out of control and called the fire department.
Pretty much any oil finish (BLO, teak, tung, etc..) runs the risk of spontaneous combustion. If using rags, a bucket of water is best for disposal followed by spreading the rags out and letting them dry thoroughly. Just wadding them up and tossing them is the worst possible thing you can do.

Oil on Douglas fir can be a bit blotchy. For me, it's just part of the nature of the wood just like grain pattern and it doesn't bother me. If you are real particular about blotchiness, you may want to consider a film finish (my opinion-far more maintenance than oil) or no finish at all instead.

Rodney

[Erik Manchester]

Adam,

LN finishes their benches with a 3-part mixture of spar-varnish, boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits. This soaks in a bit deeper than the BLO alone.

[Prashun Patel]

There are many ways to skin this cat.

some like oil and wax, so a good mix would be equal parts blo and ms with about 10 pct wax mixed in. This will give you a cream that can be rubbed into the surface for a decent bench finish. However because this requires heating of the wax, IMHO an easier alternative is:

equal parts blo, ms, and any oil based varnish (including spar varnish or even polyurethane)

To apply the oil varnish mix, you brush it on, wait for a few mins, then wipe off the excess.

[Paul Saffold]

+1 blo-v-ms. It's not too slippery for a bench, which was my concern.

[Adam Cruea]

Noted on the BLO/V/MS mix. Does it have a seriously different look than just plain BLO, or is it close enough that when I drop the top onto the base, it will acceptably match? This is similar to what Danish Oil is, right (with the exception of MS mixed in)?

Rodney> Yeah, I was afraid of blotchiness, but I've never had that issue yet with just a single coat on anything. I use a rag to apply all my finishes, and I don't just take one swipe and move on, nor do I "rub" the oil in; I just coat it with 3 or 4 passes and make sure the wood accepts the oil well. After about 10 minutes I'll go back over with the same rag again to make sure that any oil that weeps back out gets spread elsewhere. After a night or two, if I notice excess oil that has seeped out, I'll take a clean rag and give it a thorough rub-down to avoid gumminess. Thus far, it's worked a charm.

[edit]I meant to add, I had two blocks of 3.5"x3.5" hickory and applied Danish Oil and BLO to each to see what I liked. I liked that BLO penetrated *almost* to the center of the block, but the Watco Danish oil only went in about 1/4". The wood also didn't seem protected at *all*. So with the BLO/V/MS, will it soak in as deeply as the plain BLO?

Probably should put some pics up of what it looks like. . .

[Jack Curtis]

I'm of the "don't finish a workbench at all" ilk, preferring for the wood I'm working to stay in place instead of slip sliding away. The bench gets a little stained, but that's OK.

[Prashun Patel]

I am not a finishing expert, but have always read that penetration is not important to protection. Surface protection is all that is needed. Danish oil, by virtue of its varnish content is a better protectant than blo. On a bench is it all that important? Probably not.

Your top and ottom will match fine even if finished differently as u describe.

The key to keeping an oil varnish or even straight varnish finish nonslippy is to wipe it on and wipe it all off.

[rick carpenter]

I've seen it recommended to use turpentine rather than mineral spirits in a three part mixture. I don't really think an exactly equal three part ratio must be attained, but I'd think that one ratio be used for one coat, dump the leftovers into something to store them in, next time make a new mixture, and dump the leftovers together, etc etc until you get enough leftovers for one coat. My mixture is BLO/turpentine/teak oil.

[Stanley Covington]

The use of BLO on wood is an antique tradition of no practical value. All the coating companies in modern times have scientifically proven that BLO contributes almost no protection from moisture, insects, dirt, or surface wear to wood. The most it can offer is a darker color and an unpleasant stink. No one who has to guarantee the quality of their finish uses BLO anymore.

Before the availability of Chinese tung oil, and resins in modern times, they used to add Japan dryers to BLO to help it polymerize and form a somewhat protective film. This was the famous and expensive "London Finish" gunmakers of that town were known for. Danish oil improves on this by adding varnish. But why would anyone go back to plain BLO?

A better finish is easily made using a good varnish (Epifanes is the best IMO) thinned 100% with a high-quality thinner. This is applied to the wood and allowed to soak. The resins penetrate the wood fibers where they harden blocking moisture intrusion, keeping dirt from penetrating, and make the surface of the wood harder (at least harder than BLO). This is repeated a few times, allowing each coat to dry well, until the finish will not penetrate anymore but ponds on the surface. Wipe off the ponded material before it hardens. Then use the same mixture and 220 grit w/d sandpaper to sand the wood surface forcing more resin into the fibers along with a slurry of wood powder, further sealing and smoothing the surface. Let this slurry dry on the surface. The next day, sand with thinner and 400 w/d sandpaper smoothing the surface and removing any varnish resin visible. When everything has dried nicely in a day or so (depending on temp and humidity), give it a coat or two of carnuba-based (non-slip, non-silicon) floor wax. Even without the wax, water and dirt will not penetrate. The wax will prevent glue and paint from sticking. Your benchtop will be significantly more stable.

Welcome to the world of electric lights and horseless carriages.

Stan

[glenn bradley]

What George said ;-) BLO doesn't "thin" but I used a 50:50 mix of BLO and mineral spirits to avoid over-soaking. I used a 4" roller to apply generously and then came back 20 minutes later and wiped it down well. Did the same this the next morning, let it cure for a week and waxed it. That was in 2007 and here it is a few months ago:

246637

It has been re-waxed a couple times.

[Jim Neeley]

Noted on the BLO/V/MS mix. Does it have a seriously different look than just plain BLO, or is it close enough that when I drop the top onto the base, it will acceptably match? This is similar to what Danish Oil is, right (with the exception of MS mixed in)?

Adam,

Any slight difference will disappear behind the natural differences in wood color. Keep in mind that in a 1/3,1/3,1/3 -ish mix, the varnish is sufficiently dilute so as not to form a coat but some of it gets down into the pores and provides *some* level of toughening. Especially if you floor it on, let it soak, and then wipe it down with a dry rag.

[Adam Cruea]

Adam,

Any slight difference will disappear behind the natural differences in wood color. Keep in mind that in a 1/3,1/3,1/3 -ish mix, the varnish is sufficiently dilute so as not to form a coat but some of it gets down into the pores and provides *some* level of toughening. Especially if you floor it on, let it soak, and then wipe it down with a dry rag.

I want something that penetrates so that *hopefully* the wood stabilizes and doesn't end up "case hardening" (or getting crusty and popping off 2 or 3 years down the road).

I'm not particularly hopped-up about toughness. . .this thing is hickory, and a workbench to boot. It's going to get abused and have dings and dents. My biggest thing is if my idiot self spills coffee, I don't want a coffee-colored bench. :-D Just something enough to where I can pop the glue off, something that will give me 30 seconds after the initial "Oooops" after spilling coffee, yet doesn't make it impossible to plane/scrape when it needs flattened.

What I may do is go off George's advice and slap 1 or 2 coats of BLO on top. If that doesn't protect enough for what I'm looking for, I can always mix up some BLO/V/MS and slather it on, right?

I'm not really crazy about varnish to begin with. If it were completely up to me and I didn't think glue would stick indefinitely, I wouldn't even be finishing the top of this thing as I love the natural feel, look, and smell of wood.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

If spill coffee on it, it's a three step process to fix it:

1) Pour yourself another cup (this is important, otherwise you'll find find yourself dangerously under-caffeinated after step two)

2) Use the remainder of the pot to stain the rest of the project to match.

3) Make another pot of coffee.

[Adam Cruea]

If spill coffee on it, it's a three step process to fix it:

1) Pour yourself another cup (this is important, otherwise you'll find find yourself dangerously under-caffeinated after step two)

2) Use the remainder of the pot to stain the rest of the project to match.

3) Make another pot of coffee.

That seriously just made me laugh out loud.

[Chris Griggs]

If spill coffee on it, it's a three step process to fix it:

1) Pour yourself another cup (this is important, otherwise you'll find find yourself dangerously under-caffeinated after step two)

2) Use the remainder of the pot to stain the rest of the project to match.

3) Make another pot of coffee.

LOL, This needs to be stickied to the Neander Wisdom/FAQ section:D.

[Dale Cruea]

This one of those times when we need a LIKE button. Still laughing.