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Thread: Coloring tung oil

  1. #1
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    Coloring tung oil

    Can oil based stain be added to tung oil to alter the color slightly? Alternatively would staining the wood first cause subsequent coats of tung oil to not soak in deeply? Or perhaps cause the stain to " bleed" out?

  2. #2
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    My preference would be to use dye to make the initial color alteration. Since the top coat makes a major difference to the appearance of dyed wood you do have to make tests on scrap. Dye would not reduce the penetration of oil finishes.

    Pure tung oil isn't my choice for oil finish. It is slow to cure, so coats should be separated by a couple of days. Tung also takes about 4-5 coats to achieve even satin sheen. If rushed, it can exhibit a whitish grey "frosting" that might only appear after months. The cure for that is stripping and refinishing.

    Remember most products labeled Tung Oil Finish, aren't. Many are mixes of oil and varnish. Others, (such as Formby's ) are actually not an oil, but are varnish. Manufacturers make such products instead of pure tung oil because they work better, are more protective, and appearance of the oil/varnish mixes are VERY similar to a pure tung oil in the wood finish.

  3. #3
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    Thank you Steve on your thoughts about Tung oil as a finish. I've used it successfully as have others but there is a obvious difference of opinion in the woodworking community. But my original question remains. Can oil based stains be added to pure Tung oil w/o creating chemical problems?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Bernie Kopfer View Post
    But my original question remains. Can oil based stains be added to pure Tung oil w/o creating chemical problems?
    In a word, Yes. An oil stain is oil + pigment. Oil stain + tung oil is oil + pigment. The oil in oil stain dries slowly. Thick applications will often bleed into subsequent coats. It should be allowed to penetrate, and then scrubbed off with a rag so that a very thin coat remains, and allowed to dry -- or -- sealed with dewaxed shellac. Mild tinting of tung oil with commercial oil stain should not present problems of bleed-through.

    Doug

  5. #5
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    At issue is that many oil based stains are not just oil and pigment. They most often include a "binder" which is basically very thinned varnish. That will potentially interfere with subsequent coats of Tung Oil (assuming it's real tung oil and not a varnish product with "tung oil" in the name).
    --

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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    At issue is that many oil based stains are not just oil and pigment. They most often include a "binder" which is basically very thinned varnish. That will potentially interfere with subsequent coats of Tung Oil (assuming it's real tung oil and not a varnish product with "tung oil" in the name).
    Jim,

    Good point, but the OP said "to alter the color slightly" I doubt that the little bit of varnish would matter.

    Bernie -- I went off the rails a bit with my comments about scrubbing off an oil stain. That's not what you asked. Yes, I think you can add a little bit of oil stain to tung oil to tint it and then use it as you normally would. Likewise, you can dilute oil stain with tung oil. That's what I had in mind with my response.

    Doug

  7. #7
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    So here is my experience thus far. I went ahead and stained the wood to the color that I wanted to match some other parts that come in contact with it. Then I took pure ting oil diluted it in half with paint thinnerand after the stain had thoroughly dried I put on the tung oil. The result was that the paint thinner apparently lifted the stain out of the wood sufficiently that the wood ended up much lighter than I desired. So will now experiment with adding colored tung oil with only minimal paint thinner or none at all.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Hepler View Post

    Good point, but the OP said "to alter the color slightly" I doubt that the little bit of varnish would matter.
    That's true, Doug. I try to never assume that someone reading this in the future actually read other commentary and might take it as "yea, go ahead and load it up with the stain" as being kewel with the oil. But in the case of the OP, a tiny bit to tone things is likely not going to materially affect anything.
    --

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