Oil Finishes

[FL-Flintlock]

How durable is the walnut oil? I've been considering its use since I saw it in the Lee Valley catalog awhile back ( I read that it helps lower cholesterol too).

Don,
Walnut is more durable and more flexible than Linseed and slightly more flexible than Tung but not as durable ... but it all depends on the oil and how it's prepped.  "Unrefined virgin" walnut oil is what you want to eat, applied post-cooking because it'll bitter with the heat necessary for cooking, it also makes a great salad drizzle by itself or making an oil-laden emulsion with a touch of citrus juice concentrate.

As a finish, you're better off using "refined" food grade oil because it'll have a longer shelf-life than unrefined.  It can be used as-is or prepped in a variety of different ways to achieve different characteristics of application and/or psot-cure.

[Hungry Horse]

My finish is boiled linseed oil, turpentine, and bee's wax, applied without the bee's wax for the first couple of coats. Give the first couple of coats about a week to dry, or you'll be sorry. All three ingredients after that, rubbed on by hand, until it gets warm for the remaining coats. The old formula is a coat a day for a week, a coat a month for a year, and a coat a year for the rest of your life.


                         Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

For those using tung oil; try rubbing the finish to the point of warmth in
your  palm...hand rubbed finish.   Tim

This is the way I've always applied my stock finishes- true-oil or 1850 tung oil. Works for me. The main problem most people have is an innability to let it sit long enough between coats to harden completely. That is vitally important in the final product, no matter what you use.

I've used straight spar varnish that was meant for re-finishing oars.  It is a VERY durable finish that replels water better than any other finish I've ever tried and I've tried a LOT of different commercial finishes. The spar varnish takes much longer to harden and must be let sit in a more dust free environment than any other finish due to it's long hardening time. I applied it with my plam or rather the heal of my hand, hand rubbed if that's what you want to call it.  Many thin coats are better than a few thick coats and produces a much harder, better wearing finish. imho, of course.

[Vomitus]

   Had a sneak preview of my 28 yesterday and I'm impressed with how the tung oil finish came out! Nice soft satiny finish. Taylor built up the finish superbly... Can't wait to show it to you fellas!

[Daryl]

Yup - looked pretty good for a plain old smoothbore.