dull finisg with BLO

Deft

BLO not only ambers the woods heavily upon application, but it darkens further with aging.  I have grown to seriously dislike that color, and I won't use it.  Tung oil also adds amber, but not quite as much as BLO when fresh, and, as I understand it, it does not darken further with age.  BLO will cure enough to polish it in a week.  In my experience, tung oil takes a month the cure enough to polish, and this was just confirmed for me by another turner in a meeting last night. I refuse to wait that long.

I recommend Deft Clear Wood Finish Gloss Brushing Lacquer as the best of all worlds.  It does add some minimal yellow but not as much as oils.  It does pop grain, but not as much as oils.  It dries in ten minutes and can be polished in 12 hours.  It can be polished with Abralon to any degree of desired shine from satin to gloss.  I prefer going to 4000, which I call a "shiny satin".  It still looks and feels like wood, not plastic, but the reflections are bright.   ...GG

===

Re: dull finisg with BLO

Pretty much depends on if it's real tung oil, or is it thinned varnish marketed as tung oil. All that work to get a gloss finish that you could get in a few hours with lacquer. I can never understand all these mixtures and snake oil speciality mixes folks want to experiment with today, when a simple finish out of a can get you in the same place. 

Re: dull finisg with BLO

When I was  kid my grandfather gave me an old shotgun with a walnut stock.  As a budding woodworker I refinished the stock.  The legendary advice at the time was to coat it with BLO every day for a week, then every week of a month and then once a year for life.  I was fairly far into that schedule the shine was coming up nicely but still had a few dull spots.  Loaned the gun to a cousin who applied a couple of coats of varnish to "even out the shine".  I still have the gun.  Don't know how this helps you, but if you apply enough coats of BLO you can get a nice shine.