Tung Oil over Oil based stain?

[Chris Kehl]

Creekers,

I keep hearing about tung oil as a finish, so I bought some to try. I have built the LOML a wine cabinet using reclaimed SYP. I wanted it natural, she wanted it darker, so it is now stained, and I'm trying to decide on a finish. Can I use tung oil over an oil based stain? I also bought clear wax, and thought about trying that. I could obviously use polyurethane, but am wanting to try something different to broaden my horizons. Any suggestions? thanks!

[Scott Holmes]

Which Tung oil did you buy? There are many Tung oil named products and they are vastly different from each other. Most do not even have tung oil in them nor were they made from tung oil. They simple have the color and viscosity of tung oil.

100% pure tung oil by itself is not a good finish. Tung oil is an oil finish which can't be used over stained wood. I know many swear by tung oil; but it's all marketing, hype and mislabeled and misleading products. Stains have a varnish binder in them to keep the pigment in place, this seals the wood preventing an oil to penetrate into the wood.

Garnet shellac would be my choice. Most any film forming finish will be fine for a wine rack. Wipe-on varnish is almost fool proof. Make your own mixing varnish 50/50 with mineral spirits.

[Chris Kehl]

Scott, Thanks for the reply, I purchased "Old Masters 100% tung oil". I will look into garnett shellac, that would be something I have never used before either. I just want to try something new, instead of using the same old thing.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Chris,
Scott just gave you some good advice. I've enclosed two pictures of a breakfront I built 30 years ago when Formby's Tung Oil finish was all the rage. I used Pure tung oil over oil based stain. I wanted an "in the wood" finish as versus an "On the wood" look. I was a bit idealistic then. I'm over it not but still don't like plastic embalmed looking finishes.
Though it looks good in the pictures I will point out two problems. First of all, my dear wife faithfully coats the piece with a fresh layer of lemon oil once or twice a year. Were it not for her diligence the finish would not look nearly as good. Secondly, the finish is not water resistant. Look closely in the second picture and you will see a spot that was stained by a glass of water with ice. The glass sweated and we didn't see it until it was too late. Fortunately, you have to look closely to see it.
Shellac is probably the most waterproof finish you can find for fine furniture use. Of course, it is alcohol based so don't spill your martini on it.
fmr

[Chris Kehl]

Faust,

Very nice piece, hopefully some day my skills will be up to that level. Sounds like I need to find some shellac and give it a try. Thank you for all the advice.

[Scott Holmes]

Faust,

Your breakfront still looks very nice. IF it had been finished with pure 100% tung oil it would be in very bad shape. I don't know how many coats you put on your breakfront; but 3 wipe-on coats (50% varnish/50% MS) is about the same as 1 brush on coat; so if you didn't apply 9+ coats then you applied a very thin coat and that's why it's having trouble. Using Formby's I would say 15+ wipe on coats would be about right to a reasonable build.

Homer Formby has made a fortune selling an alkyd resin/soya oil VARNISH mixed 20% varnish with 80% mineral spirits. A very very thin WIPING VARNISH that is NOT EVEN MADE FROM tung oil. The varnish is made from soya oil and alkyd resins...

He calls it Homer Formby's Tung Oil finish. Not a drop of tung oil in it!

YOu can still add more finish if your bride has not used any silicone products on it.