BLO is an oil stain.

[Bob Wingard]

I'll let the facts & evidence stand on their own ... as I said, pour a little out on a piece of glass .. wait 24-48 hrs as recommended here by many, and see if you can get any topcoat to stick to what's left. If you're happy using it as the only finish, so be it ... I'm not interested in using it that way or any other way for that matter.

[Bob Wingard]

Items finished with BLO will develop a patina with handling over the years.

The wonderful patina of which you speak is more an accumulation of sweat, body oil, and dirt ... all of which were readily accepted by the unprotected, open pores of the wood.

[Pete McMahon]

The wonderful patina of which you speak is more an accumulation of sweat, body oil, and dirt ... all of which were readily accepted by the unprotected, open pores of the wood.

Bob, An English author once stated the only "true" patina was a wax patina. He also went on to bash us by stating "the effete westerner always has a need to wear gloves when finishing"
I agree with you though, a patina is a combination of all of the above along with whatever polishing compound was popular at the time. Look at that witches brew of BLO and turpentine. Many conservators spend an inordinate amount of time carefully removing that oxidized sludge from good surfaces.

[Peter Clark]

I'm suprised nobody mentioned the hydrating properties it brings to the wood.....I my be talking above my pay grade here but doesn't oil in general help to make the cells and fibers in the wood transparent to a degree and that is what bring out the richer and deeper colors?

[Chris Fournier]

If you fire long and hard enough you'll have converts or no one will put there heads up to look!

Sadly I'm a BLO fool and have used it under NC lacquer for pretty much 20 years. No adhesion problems to date. I let it cure first of course.

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> pour a little out on a piece of glass

That experiment will tell you little about the "drying" of boiled linseed oil. BLO is not to be used that way. It's applied, allowed to set for 15 or so minutes and then wiped dry. Used this way is will polymerize (not really harden and cure but forms a soft film) in the wood and on the surface. BLO can be readily coated with an oil based finish before it fully polymerizes as linseed oil is a component of most oil based finishes.

If you are trying to make the point that BLO is a lousy finish, I won't argue. But most folks are using it more as a colorant to "pop" the figure in the grain, not as a final finish.

[Bob Wingard]

"Used this way is will polymerize" ... POLYMERIZE = To react or cause to react to form a polymer. If you choose to believe this without any facts or data to substantiate it ... so be it.

My little experiment is quite valid .. it just doesn't match your preconceived ideas, so you declare it invalid ... nice, open-minded attitude. Further, the notion of top coating it 15 minutes after application is ridiculous. If "popping" the grain involves some of the horrific blotching I've seen using this substance ... I'll pass. If you are a fan of OIL/SHELLAC/TOP COAT or OIL/VARNISH let me ask you this ... how would your finishing schedule address blending the color variation of heartwood/sapwood/solid lumber/veneer ply ???

Try this one ... finish a plank of wood or two using your oil/top coat ... let it "cure" or "dry" or "polymerize" for a few months ... set it somewhere in your house in full sun for a few hours, and watch the oil come to the surface in an attempt to escape. Any substance that has cured/dried/magically turned to plastic will be stable and unable to move in that manner.

[Scott Holmes]

I too use BLO to pop the grain of a project. I don't flood it on and let it soak in... I wipe it on liberally and wipe it off within a few minutes, it only needs to wet the wood, not soak in as you would with an oil/varnish blend finish. I usually seal it in after a day or two with shellac.

[George Neill]

I'll let the facts & evidence stand on their own ... as I said, pour a little out on a piece of glass .. wait 24-48 hrs as recommended here by many, and see if you can get any topcoat to stick to what's left. If you're happy using it as the only finish, so be it ... I'm not interested in using it that way or any other way for that matter.

How often would you pour a little BLO onto a glass-like, sealed wooden surface?

If applied to raw wood, BLO will sink in and dry relatively rapidly, becoming 'one' with the wood.

As others have said, it's good enough to pop grain and can be polished on while still wet. What's not to love about it?

[Henry Ambrose]

Bob is technically correct.

Just because you can't feel the wetness in a coat of BLO applied to wood doesn't mean its dry. Its not dry. If you slap some varnish over it the two finishes sorta meld together and you end up with a hard varnish over some semi hard BLO. I don't dislike it the way Bob does but BLO really does not dry hard. Putting it on glass or metal lets it be exposed to the atmosphere fully so if its gonna dry it will. But of course it does not anymore than it does down in the pores of wood.

BLO has been a valued primer material for a long long time. It soaks in and helps varnish and oil paints bond. BLO has some limited resistance to moisture, but not like a proper varnish. By itself it works well for work bench tops. Its better than nothing in terms of protecting the wood. BLO will keep glue from sticking to your bench top and maybe keep some grime off the surface by being in the wood under the grime.

Overall, BLO is a proven material for some uses but its not everything some would have you believe.

[Bob Wingard]

"How often would you pour a little BLO onto a glass-like, sealed wooden surface?"

NEVER !!! I said to pour a little onto a real piece of glass. I do that just once ... to verify that it will exist in it's present form, practically forever, without EVER drying. The glass is a good overall test to check for physical properties ... if it doesn't dry when exposed to the air, how do you think it will perform once you seal it in with a top coat ??? You might as well use 10-W30.




"If applied to raw wood, BLO will sink in and dry relatively rapidly, becoming 'one' with the wood."

Wrong ... it WILL "sink in" but it will NEVER dry ... as to the "becoming one with the wood" ... now we're getting back to the nonsense about polymerization ... it simply doesn't happen, but if it makes you feel lbetter to believe that ... so be it.

[John Coloccia]

Hide glue turns into jelly when you put it in a glob on a piece of glass, therefore hide glue has no strength because it's like holding things together with jelly...

But whatever. Obviously some people like using it for various reasons. The rant against it seems awfully silly. If you don't like it, don't use it.

[Bob Wingard]

Hide glue turns into jelly when you put it in a glob on a piece of glass, therefore hide glue has no strength because it's like holding things together with jelly...

But whatever. Obviously some people like using it for various reasons. The rant against it seems awfully silly. If you don't like it, don't use it.

DING DING DING ... yet another wrong answer ... hide glue most certainly DOES harden/dry/cure. Added to the fact that now you're comparing apples to oranges ... when can you remember hearing about anyone using hide glue as a finish ???

[Bob Wingard]

Here's a pretty good summary from : http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infpai/inflin.html


Why shouldn't you pick linseed oil as your first choice in a preservative?

Linseed oil has some negatives. Granted, it has been used with some success for many years. But welcome to the modern world! Today, there are scads of linseed oil-based paints and preservatives that expand on linseed oil's good qualities while overcoming (at least to some degree) its drawbacks.

Some of the problems with straight linseed oil, boiled or raw, are:

* Sometimes linseed oil can take forever to dry... or stays sticky or doesn't dry at all!! This is a nightmare situation that happens too often when linseed oil is applied either (1) too thickly, (2) onto damp materials or (3) when the temperature is too cold. Thinning linseed oil with turpentine can help somewhat, but even with thinning it is important to apply thin, multiple coats but allow each coat to dry before applying the next!
* No UV (ultraviolet) light resistance... UV causes more damage to exposed wood than any other factor, destroying wood fibers and setting it up for attack by mildew, fungus, and insects.
* Linseed oil is mildew food... Many vegetable oils are food products for humans... all vegetable oils are food products for mildew! Linseed oil is not completely denatured, so it can encourage rather than discourage mildew growth.
* Linseed oil does not harden sufficiently to offer enough resistance to abrasion to be a suitable deck floor preservative... at least by today's standards. Linseed oil has been used for interior wood floors, but it must be waxed for durability! Waxing an outside deck would be dangerous, even if you hang a "Slippery When Wet" sign!
* Difficult to remove from wood... Multiple coats of linseed oil are gummy and difficult to remove fully for refinishing.

[Jim Becker]

I'll let the facts & evidence stand on their own ... as I said, pour a little out on a piece of glass .. wait 24-48 hrs as recommended here by many, and see if you can get any topcoat to stick to what's left. If you're happy using it as the only finish, so be it ... I'm not interested in using it that way or any other way for that matter.

This really doesn't simulate how an application of BLO to wood will perform. The oil is absorbed by the wood and any excess is removed by the person doing the finishing after 20-30 minutes. There is no "film" and no sticky residue like you get with the glass test. And any oil based varnish or shellac will easily adhere to the wood that's been prepared in this way.

That said, I have no issue with you not liking to use BLO. We have so many choices for finishing products and regimens and each of us is different in our approaches to finishing. That's a good thing.
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Matt, Seal-A-Cell isn't the same thing as using BLO.