I'll defer to John's experience, but I use a fair amount of BLO and find that thinning it with mineral spirits causes it to bleed more than normal. Personally, I don't like BLO to soak in because it increases drying time and does little (to my eye) for the color vis-a-vis a lighter wipe-down. However, if you are interested in increasing the mobility and penetration of the BLO, I think u might do better to heat it b4 applying instead of thinning it.