Traditional oil finish-How to do it?

[Ray Masciarella]

Says it took two weeks to do oil finish but doesn't state the process? Ray

[Austin W Hogan]

" Big Iron" has been dead almost ten years; I have had that manuscript on my disk for 12 or 14 years and have sent it out 10 or 15 times a year. I just re read it for the first time in a good many years; I didn't do bad for a beginner.
With respect to putting on a modern oil finish, assuming you don't have a 25 year old can of spar varnish or boiled linseed oil stored away, you must consider that leadless linseed oil is a host for bacterial or fungus growth.
Second, the traditional oil finish is in the wood, not on the wood. It is possible to quickly put on a hardened oil coating, but an oil finish requires time for the oil to soak into the wood.
The time required to put on a hardened oil coating depends on the amount of drier that is added. Lin Speed and other commercial oil finishes used a lot of drier and produced a good coating in a few days.

Best, Austin

[Ray Masciarella]

Austin

I understand all your points. The "in the wood" finish is what I'm looking for and why I was asking questions. No, don't have any old oil around. Are you saying that without leaded oil I can't do what I want or that it's chancey because of fungus growth? If modern BLO isn't any good to use. is there anything else that will give me that "in the wood" look or am I just stuck having to use Lin-speed, Tru oil, etc?

[Labowner]

Watco Danish oil, my Cherry Harvest is done with it and I have finished a half dozen guns with it. It comes in a standard oil and a marine. I like the marine