Boiled Linseed Oil Drying Time

As a slight tangent, I would also like to point out that I've finished only one piece in oil without shellac.  This ia a tall chest on chest, with Tried and True's varnish oil mix product.  This was perhaps six to seven years ago.  This process required a great deal of hard rubbing, but produced a nice look.  I wouldn't do it again, simply because shellac is easier, even French polished.  I also wouldn't do it again, because today, this piece is beginning to suffer from a dried-out look, and clearly needs more attention.  Not so with any shellac piece I've ever done.

JD
 
JD,

You stated, "oil under French polish, applied in a day and I would add that it will dry hard in three days".  I assume you mean the BLO is dry (cured?) in three days. Have you done a micro analyst of the oil surface to see if it is indeed dry/cured?  I know George Frank did not.  Remember, shellac will stick and dry to almost any surface including a waxed surface.  I think we need a chemist to do a test to see who is right.  Do we have any members who are a chemist to do this?

Preston, are you glad you ask this question?  Everyone has their favorite finishes.  Use whatever works best and easiest for you. 

I think this debate is getting a bit heated!

Dennis Bork
 
I think this debate is getting a bit heated!

YEAH! LET'S GET READDDDDDDDDY TO RUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBLE

Nothing wrong with folks who have strong convictions &  expressing them, hopefully in a civil manner. It's how humans learn about stuff plus, it can provide some entertainment as well during this holiday season.
 
In the end, I really dont think it matters how one finishes wood because if it survives  50-100 years, it's going to need a new finish anyway, unless of course the piece gets moved into a dark room and remains there undisturbed.
 
More food for thought.                                                                                                                            Starting in the late renaissance [15th century] many if not most oil paintings were done using a technique called glazing . In this technique a monochromatic painting was done, usually in sepia and umber, to establish the light and dark aspects of the painting. After this faze of the work was complete the color was glaze in over it. The glazes were made of mostly linseed oil with small amounts of natural pigments added and sometimes a drier and turpentine. These glazes were very transparent being mostly oil and turpentine.  Beautiful and rich surfaces were built up with many layers of glazes one over the other. This technique persisted as a primary method until the mid19th century when many artificial pigments were discovered by the dye industry and revolutionized oil painting as well. Even after this period up until today paintings are done with pigments ground in oil, linseed oil. The question is if linseed oil turns dark or black over time why aren?t these paintings turning dark. For many years I have restored paintings as well as furniture and In my experience any discoloration on a painting is removed when you remove the surface film from the painting, most often copal varnish.
  Here is a 1810 painting half cleaned that I restored for a museum in southwest Wisconsin this past summer.
 
The painting looks better clean, i think.

Not to long ago, they restored the painted ceiling of the sistine chapel which started a war that continues to this day. Check out the before and after pics as well as commentary on pro/anti conservation forces.

                              Right or Wrong?

http://msopal29.myweb.uga.edu/
 
Even a little more off topic...

I saw the Sistine chapel in 1987 when 1/3 was completed, 1/3 was in process (covered-up), and 1/3 was original.  From an uneducated 25 year old's perspective the clean section was absolutely amazing.  The un-cleaned third was dingy looking.  Can you imagine the soot built-up over hundreds of years?

Does anyone know if they removed the "clothing" which was added after Michelagelo completed it?
 
Hi All
  I never meant for this to become a heated topic, must be my total lack of typing skills. As I stated before, my background is in finishes and it's history. I collect old finishing books, many read like  comic books, when you size them up to modern technology.F Gottshall's books [ of witch I'm a fan ] list the use of unleaded gas.In other books you will find the use of diesel fuel,WD-40,wine,tar,and even Spam as furniture polish. When I was in school with George Frank, I was pore filling with things like Jello, brick dust , and sometimes Oreo cookies, after I ate the white stuff.Where these good practices????. Maybe not, but they were cool. Come-on,red Jello as  a pore filler, thats cool.
  I'm not sure where the oil under a finish came from, but BLO as a furniture polish is every place.In my Field, I see see the results often.A gummy goo encapsulating grime of the ages.Working in KC I had a chance to visit the Neilson-Atkins museum, where one can see the results of BLO on the surface of a highboy.Because BLO never really dry es,as a polish it collects dust and over the years, I think this adds to the dark color of deterioration. Now there is a topic,Is it damage or history?
  As far as speeding up the French Polishing,  yes it will.  By filling the pores with oil,polishing on a flat surface is fairly easy.As used as a pore filler, there are better.
  To-date, with all the reasons not to use BLO, [not to turn up the heat again, but] no-one has given a good reason to use the stuff with todays technology. Sorry, other than it smells good and makes the grain pop.
As far as using it to  expose defects when sanding, Alcohol works much better, it shows scratches, removes natural wood resins, and evaporates, pores empty for seal coat.
  I guess in short ,  do what works best for you, just know why your doing it.
Randy
 
I have heard the curators at Colonial Wmsbg complain about darkening of BLO finished pieces, but I believe these were finished only with BLO and no other topcoat. I wonder then whether oxidation causes the darkening, and oxidation might not occur if BLO was only used as the base coat, then topcoated with shellac or varnish that protected against oxidation.
I'm very interested in the finishing comments about using BLO to help find those little blemishes that are difficult to see before finishing and impossible to fix afterwards.
Would the BLO/lacquer thinner combo work well for this? Once you sand or scrape the blemishes out of the mahagony do you have to wait a few days for it to darken before continuing to finish.

Howard Steier
 
Randy,
Was the Jello unsweetened? IRRC Jello is basically a weak form of hide glue, even the sugar wouldn't hurt much once it was sealed in. Funny stuff, Finishing from the lunch box, Oreo cookies, Jello, Flax Seed oil, even shellac is used in food and candy, unsweetened  kool aid makes a good dye. Maybe I need to build a ginger bread house.
Happy Holidays to all!
Mike
 
Randy - I think many of us use BLO instead of a modern finish because modern finishes weren't available when the furniture we make was in-style, not because BLO isn't markedly inferior to the performance of these modern finishes.  An example is a two-part conversion varnish.  I've used this to finish "modern" bar tops, dining tables and many other articles that aren't "of the period".

But I wouldn't even consider using conversion varnish on an 18th century reproduction, for the same reason that I remove all evidence of power tools (if any were used) in the construction of such a piece.  To me, that utterly uniform, very hard, and perfectly flat satin finish simply looks wrong.
 
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