BLO Finish?

[Jerry Crawford]

I've noticed several references to "BLO" when discussing finish. What is BLO?

[Greg Heppeard]

Boiled Linseed Oil :-)

[Bob Smalser]

Boiled Linseed Oil.

I prefer raw linseed instead....doesn't have the driers in it the boiled flavor does so you can soak it deeper into whatever wood you are finishing with it like work bench tops so glue won't stick and the inside of dried-out boat planking. I can always add some Japan Drier to my raw linseed to get the same result as boiled linseed. Use thin coats....and hundreds of them rubbed in deep for best results.....like a coat every working day.

"Boat Soup" is an all-purpose wood treatment applied hot from the double boiler that fills the wood before varnishing or painting....open-grained woods are sanded in a slurry of it to fill the pores. Fill plywood with it as much as it'll take before those coats of alkyd paint and it won't check in the sun.

1 gallon Linseed Oil

1/3-1/2 gallon turpentine

1 pint Pine Tar (available at farrier/tack suppliers)

1/4 cup Japan Drier (if desired)

1 lb beeswax (if desired - only for wood to be left unpainted)

The downside is that it blackens in the sun - substitute Tung Oil if that's important to you.

[Jerry Crawford]

Aha! thanks

[Ed Breen]

Bob,
I particularly like the quote you chose for your messages. Back in the late fifties I owned a cutter rigged blue water sail but I lost my mast. 46' above the water line. I had the ship in a boatyard and my next slip neighbor wh had been a retired tow boat captain on either the Ohio or Mississippi river designed for me and together we built a tabernacle of oak (hand sawn) and attached it to the step, to take a shorter mast. The ship yard workers did there best to break it when we put her in the water to wait for a neap tide, (tried to pull her off the mud by a rope attached to the tabernacle. No dice it all held anmd the mast worked like a charm until I came west and sold the boat. Yes, there are true craftysmen who do wonders with hard wood and hand tools.
Ed

[Pam Niedermayer]

Boiled Linseed Oil.
...

The downside is that it blackens in the sun - substitute Tung Oil if that's important to you.


Substitute Tung Oil for what? All the boat soup ingredients? Just the beeswax? Just the raw linseed oil?

Thanks,
Pam

[Bob Smalser]

The oil.

But tung is tres spendy. I've come to like a petroleum-based substitute called Daly's Teak Oil. A polymerizing oil like the rest but very clear and very thin - soaks deep. Great base under varnish.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Thanks, Bob.

Pam

[John Keeling]

Would I be right in assuming that you are using Raw Tung Oil not the polymerized versions in the boat soup mix?

Thanks Bob

[Bob Smalser]

Yes.

The issue in boats is how far it soaks into the wood. 5 gallons of raw can be left pooled in the bottom of a dried-out old boat for weeks to fill up the wood and close all those open planking seams, where polymerized would gel into a gooey mess.

For furniture, I don't think this matters and polymerized is fine.