Will oil leach?
Fred Elliott
I'm just on the final legs (no pun intended) of sanding
a quilt rack that I'm making for my wife. I saw a rack
similar to it in a store and decided to make one.
The one in the store was made of Poplar and has a Tung
oil finish on it. I decided to use the same type of
wood and oil.
A friend of mine said I might have trouble with the oil
rubbing off onto the quilts my wife will hang on the
rack.
Is this something I can prevent and still use the Tung
oil for the finish?
Perry Luoni
put a coat or two of wax on after the tung has dried for a
while. I've had no leaching problems. I prefer Danish
oil to tung oil though. I use the Watco brand.
Michael J. Edelman
Most "oil" finishes on the market, whether tung oil, Miniwax's "Antique Oil" or
whatever are not really oils, but rather varnishes, one of the componants
of which is an oil. They polymerize very hard and will not seep. There are some
oil finishes that consist of linseed oil and metallic dryers as well, but
they can set up very hard as well.
A true oil finish that never sets can seep, of course, but this is very rare.
The only oil finishes like that I've ever seen are on some old firearms that
were finished with raw linseed oil.
Which reminds me of my pet peeve about wood finishes: Those lemon-scented mineral
oil concoctions sold by Formby and others that are intended to (so the sellers
claim) "feed the wood" and "replenish the natural oils". If you buy that, I have
a used squiblet flurbigator I can let you have cheap...
--mike
Steve Pinn
Fred, once the surface has polymerized that should not happen. You might
want to consider a tung oil varnish like Waterlox or a linseed resin like
Watco. I have not had any problems with either of these. In fact about
6 months ago I finished a coffee table with Watco followed by Hydrocoat
water base lacquer (talk about incompatible surfaces!) I have not had
any adhesion problems at all. - Steve (Pi...@se.cpqhou.compaq.com)
Chris Lewis
>In article ll6mg4...@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM, fre...@babble.Eng.Sun.COM (Fred Elliott) writes:
>>A friend of mine said I might have trouble with the oil
>>rubbing off onto the quilts my wife will hang on the
>>rack.
>>Is this something I can prevent and still use the Tung
>>oil for the finish?
>Most "oil" finishes on the market, whether tung oil, Miniwax's "Antique Oil" or
>whatever are not really oils, but rather varnishes, one of the componants
>of which is an oil. They polymerize very hard and will not seep. There are some
>oil finishes that consist of linseed oil and metallic dryers as well, but
>they can set up very hard as well.
There's a terminology problem here, and the manufacturers often aren't
helping. As you say, many (but not all) tung oil finishes are actually
a "tung oil varnish", with dryers, which will cause them to set quite
hard quite quickly. However, by the term "Tung oil" with no modifier,
it really should mean pure tung oil which has no dryers and is non-toxic.
And is somewhat like raw linseed oil. tung oil varnish is analogous to
boiled linseed oil and has dryers.
A real oil finish, such as raw linseed, pure tung or walnut oil does take
a relatively long time to completely polymerize. Sometimes raw linseed
never does. Even when it does, the finish is relatively soft, so certain
types of usage (ie: a quilting *frame*) could wear the finish and leave
traces on whatever did the wearing. Pure oil finishes can also "bleed"
(little droplets of oil) if they're subjected to extreme environment changes
before they've completely polymerized. I had this happen to me with
a 4-5 day old thick pure tung finish that was stored in a trailer under a tarp
for a couple of nights during the winter, and it was brought indoors.
It was easy to fix of course, but anything in contact with it would have
gotten somewhat soiled.
That being said, the pure oil finishes look better than the varnish-types.
For example, pure tung is a very rich and deep satin finish, where
tung oil varnish is much glossier (though this can be modified somewhat
if you have access to, say, Lee Valley's range of products) and not quite
as rich.
For a quilt rack, especially with valuable quilts, it's probably not
a good idea to use a real oil finish. Though, after several weeks of
drying, pure tung properly applied (*many* thin coats applied several
days apart) or walnut oil would *probably* be okay. Tung oil varnish
is a good substitute for tung oil on things that will get more wear, or
must be put into use quickly, or you need absolute assurance it won't
stain whatever it's in contact with. Tung oil varnish, while not quite
as gorgeous as a pure tung finish, is almost as tough as polyurethane
and looks nicer. I did a convection oven stand with tung oil varnish
and even when subjected to all the heat, it's stood up pretty well.
--
Chris Lewis; cle...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Ferret list: ferret-...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
william.l.millios
First, you might want to steer clear of Poplar in the future.
It can get a greenish tint. I think it looks best under paint. :^)
Try a tung oil-based product. Minwax, Behlens, and others
make these, which have a tung oil base, with some driers,
bats eyes, and frog's tongues thrown in there for good
measure. These have polyurethane or varnish in there for
a harder finish with the tung oil appearance. (Some
of these are also based on boiled linseed oil - check the
contents of the can.)
Michael Dresden writes a great book on finishing, and
I *think* he says that some woods will leach oil for a
while - he mentioned oak. Not sure about poplar. If it
does happen, wipe the thing down with a clean cloth.
You know the "rule of two" for oil finish, right?
Twice a day for a week
Twice a week for a month
Twice a month for a year
Twice a year for the rest of your life (or the house
burns down, taking the thing with it)
But for results - wow.
Bill