Finishing with BLO

Re: Finishing with BLO - somewhat long

JL

>What to put over BLO? You have a couple of choices. One option that is easily available to you is to get some reasonable quality paste wax (Bowling Alley, Johnsons, etc.) and put it on the piece after the BLO has dried. You can hand buff it to a fairly high sheen. Other waxes will work also. Eduardo uses neutral shoe wax on some of his pieces. Bri wax works nicely. A quality car wax will also work. The more carnuba in the wax, the "harder" the finish. I sometimes make my own wax mixture (50:50 beeswax:carnuba). I will let the other guys weigh in on lacquers and what not, as I don't have much experience with them.

How long to let it dry? It depends. If the relative humidity is high, it will seem like forever. If the temperature is low, it will seem like forever. The BLO "reacts" and polymerizes as it oxidizes. This reaction takes as long as it takes. One way of "measuring" it is to look at the wipes that you applied the BLO with. I typically hang my wipes to "dry" so they won't spontaneously combust. When the wipes are dry, the finish on the piece is about ready to put on another coat.

Re: Finishing with BLO

Mike Schwing from Md.

>One of my favorite finishes (but for some reason I haven't used it much late) involves BLO, shellac, and varnish. One coat of BLO will usually do just fine for this. I apply it to the sanded surface, let it soak in for 10 minutes or so and then wipe as much of it off as I am able. Let it dry overnight (I have skipped this step with good results also), then brush on a coat of Zissner Bullseye Shellac from the can (Blonde, not amber). When dry sand it smooth with 320 grit, and then apply 3 thin wiping coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal. Finally, rub it out with 4/0 steel wool and a beeswax/orange or lemon oil mix. It will make a really, really nice, tough finish.

The shellac seals in the BLO - and keeps it from reacting with any other finishes. You can topcoat it with anything after the shellac. The Zissner product works well for me because of its long shelf life and if you wanted that to be the final finish it surely would be a nice, hard finish, several coats would build very nicely. I like the arm-r-seal because it gives a very rich, warm, amber glow.

Hope this helps some. There are a million other ways to do what you asked, this is only one of them that I happen to be familiar with and have used many times with good results.

Re: Finishing with BLO

Joe Herrmann

>I've used BLO for more than 30 years with no problems. I thin the material with paint thinner or turpentine, apply a heavy coat with a brush or a rag and let it set for about 10-15 minutes. Then I wipe off as much as possible. On some open grained woods like Oak, I go back and make sure that the oil is gone from the pores and might have to do it more than once.

I let it dry overnight or for a couple of days and then apply either several coats of Deft lacquer or some kind of polyurethane varnish. I have never had a problem nor have the kids in class.

About the only problem you might have is if you forget to wipe off the excess oil mixture. It congeals into a sticky mess that is extremely difficult to remove. I had at least one kid each year who found out the hard way!

Joe

Re: Finishing with BLO

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Lacquer also makes a good seal coat!