Danish Oil,Watco, Tung Oil...difference?
Doug S
Oil? I'm making the computer desk that was in woodsmith a few months
back...which of the above products would be best...I want a smooth
finish (I'm planning on using the slurry method) and it should be
somewhat durable especially around the keyboard/mouse area(coffee,dirty
hands etc...) Does varnish provide some protection?..
tia
Doug
Opinions expressed herein are my own and may not represent those of my employer.
jim mcnamara
Danish oil, Watco, Deftoil, Formby's: these are oil finishes - usually made
of alkyd resin varnish, thinner and a drying oil (linseed oil or tung oil).
Formby's is more of a wiping varnish - almost no oil and mostly thinner with
some varnish.
Drying oil - boiled linseed oil, linseed oil, tung oil, walnut oil,
Poppyseed oil, and some others. These are plant seed oils that react with
oxygen (usually VERY slowly) and polymerize into a more or less soft
coating.
The curing time for oil finishes is a lot faster than for pure oils.
And raw linseed oil takes months to cure. Pure tung oil requires about 30
days for the final cure. You can usually put varnish or whatever over Watco
after 3-4 days.
None of these provides a great deal of build, like varnish does.
None provides as much protection against water or abrasion as does varnish.
However, all of these oils & oil finishes are loads easier to use than
almost any other finish. All of the pure drying oils are basically edible
although tung oil (from the Aleurites palm) is also used as a medicine
kinda like Milk of Magnesia -- if you get my drift. Boiled linseed oil is
not edible.
Main point- it's how well you can use a finish and get results you like as
much as any other factor that should dictate your choice when you are just
starting out. Oil finishes are at the top of the 'EASY' list and give good
results. Whether you 'slurry'' or not is up to you. You can get semi-gloss
with a lot of applications of an oil finish, but not with a pure drying oil.
Therefore -- try either Watco or Deftoil.
Follow the application directions on the label.
jim mcnamara
Typeset
Oil. These are "oil varnishes" or "wiping varnishes" with a bit more
resin in them. Harder than Danish oils, more protection, and capable
of a "build," which is impossible after a point with Danish Oil.
Dale Blankenship
> Danish oil, Watco, Deftoil, Formby's: these are oil finishes - usually made
> of alkyd resin varnish, thinner and a drying oil (linseed oil or tung oil).
> Formby's is more of a wiping varnish - almost no oil and mostly thinner with
> some varnish. <snip>
I recently attended an excellent, six-hour seminar for woodfinishing. When I
read your post, I had to check the name to
make sure it wasn't the instructor that wrote it.
Dale
--
To reply, delete 88 from displayed email address.
Mike G.
You've have already gotten several correct, but, possably a bit
obscure, answers. To simipify, if I may, tung oil, assuming a true
tung oil and not a pesudo tung oil, , that is wiped on left to sit and
soak into the wood for a specific period of time then the excess is
wiped off and left to cure. After a sutable curing time more coats can
be added to the level of sheen desired. It will never give you the
high gloss finish of a surface finish ie... shellac, lacquer, varnish,
but rather gives you a very warm low luster hand rubbed look.
Danish oil, which is what watco is, also contains, in good brands,
tung oil and a few extras. Of these the two most important are
asphaultium (sp), for color I think, but could be wrong, my refrence
books are still packed away, and the same resins that varnish contains
but in a much smaller oil to resins ration then varnish (Danish oil
is, in effect, a very very long oil varnish).
All things being equal the main benifit lays in the fact that danish
oil will provide a small measure more protection then straight tung
oil, will provide a slightly higher gloss, and last and most
importantly, to me anyway, builds much faster.
If you are building your desk out of an open pore wood such as oak,
want a smooth finish, and are depending on an oil finish to provide
it, well, slurry method or not, good luck!
On Wed, 02 Dec 1998 15:41:33 -0600, dswa...@mmm.com (Doug S) wrote:
>Could someone explain the differences between Danish Oil,Watco, and Tung
>Oil? I'm making the computer desk that was in woodsmith a few months
>back...which of the above products would be best...I want a smooth
>finish (I'm planning on using the slurry method) and it should be
>somewhat durable especially around the keyboard/mouse area(coffee,dirty
>hands etc...) Does varnish provide some protection?..
>
>tia
>Doug
>
>
>
>Opinions expressed herein are my own and may not represent those of my employer.
>
A thought
Mike G. (AKA MtCowboy)
mj...@tiac.net
ben...@my-dejanews.com
> Could someone explain the differences between Danish Oil,Watco, and Tung
> Oil?
Jim McNamara's follow-up to this already covered a number of salient points,
but it did omit the warning that many products labeled "Tung Oil" have NO tung
oil in them. Hope's "Tung Oil Varnish" is one, I believe - it's just a wiping
varnish (heavily thinned varnish). As for true tung oil being edible: be
careful as many products that have tung oil in them also have toxic drying
agents in them.
> I'm making the computer desk that was in woodsmith a few months
> back...which of the above products would be best...I want a smooth
> finish (I'm planning on using the slurry method)...
The slurry method with an oil or oil/varnish blend is a waste of time: you end
up wiping most of the slurry out. If you don't wipe these finishes well, they
often dry into a sticky gooey mess: they're meant to be applied in thin coats.
It sounds like you want a level finish that has the pores filled. You don't
say what wood you used, but assuming you've used oak, you should fill the
pores with a pore-filler before applying the finish. But, as Flexner says,
the whole point of an oil finish is that the pores are crisp and delineated -
if you want a pore-filled look you should be considering surface building
finishes like shellac, lacquer, or varnish.
> and it should be somewhat durable especially around the keyboard/mouse area
> (coffee,dirty hands etc...) Does varnish provide some protection?..
Varnish provides more protection than the "oil" finishes you've mentioned.
Oil finishes are usually chosen because they're easy to apply and give
results that don't obscure the wood tactily or visually as much, at the
expense of not protecting as much.
When you narrow your choices down a bit further, you should try it on some
scrap first - there's not much worse than having to strip off a new finish you
don't like.
- Bennett Leeds
ben...@my-dejanews.com
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
eise...@tm.net
Do yourself a favor and buy (or check-out from your library) the bible on
finishing/refinishing entitled "Understanding Wood Finishes" by Bob Flexner.
You'll agree, like many, that Bob is THE AUTHORITY on wood finishes and all
the myths associated with them. Your question in particular yearns for the
book as different manufacturers have very different contents in their cans of
"oil".
Best luck,
Joe Eisenman
eise...@tm.net
In article <3665B4...@mmm.com>,
dswa...@mmm.com (Doug S) wrote:
> Could someone explain the differences between Danish Oil,Watco, and Tung
> Oil? I'm making the computer desk that was in woodsmith a few months
> back...which of the above products would be best...I want a smooth
> finish (I'm planning on using the slurry method) and it should be
> somewhat durable especially around the keyboard/mouse area(coffee,dirty
> hands etc...) Does varnish provide some protection?..
>
> tia
> Doug
>
> Opinions expressed herein are my own and may not represent those of my
employer.
>
>
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------