{"id":7541,"date":"2022-12-26T17:58:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T22:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=7541"},"modified":"2022-12-26T17:58:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T22:58:46","slug":"my-favorite-finishes-part-4-oil-varnish-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/26\/my-favorite-finishes-part-4-oil-varnish-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"My favorite finishes, part 4 – oil-varnish mix"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Sam<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You can go a little crazy trying to sort out “oil” finishes, mostly because there is rampant misleading and uninformative labeling among manufacturers who often try to create a mystique surrounding their products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few key points to help keep things straight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Varnish<\/strong>, including wiping varnish such as Waterlox Original, should not be termed an “oil” finish, even though oil (along with a resin) is used in its manufacture. Varnish is a film finish; it cures hard and builds into film thicknesses on the wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Actual oil <\/strong>finishes, such as linseed oil and tung oil, do not cure hard and do not build appreciably as a film thickness. The exception is polymerized oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Oil-varnish<\/strong> mixes are just that. The presence of free oil prevents substantial build into a film thickness. These products are notoriously mislabeled as “oil,” such as Watco Danish Oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, I refer you to Bob Flexner’s wonderfully clear instructive writings, especially his book\u00a0Understanding Wood Finishing<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am discussing oil-varnish mix<\/strong>. Advantages<\/strong> of this finish include: easy application, nearly mistake-proof, brings out the figure in wood, gives a low key “natural” look, and does not obstruct visual and tactile contact with the wood. One particular place I do not use oil-varnish is inside cabinets or boxes because the smell can accumulate and linger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite oil-varnish for more than 30 years has been has been Sam Maloof Poly-Oil from Rockler<\/strong>. What is in it? The label says linseed oil, tung oil, polyurethane, and solvents. In what proportions? Who knows?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I do know is that it has a nice, thick body in application, it brings out wood figure beautifully without overdoing it, and four coats produce a nice satin sheen after buffing out with a rag. If you want a bit more glow, you can finish up with a paste wax or an oil-wax blend.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The method:<\/strong> For an oil-varnish finish, it pays to sand the wood out to 320 or 400 grit, especially for diffuse porous species like cherry. I slop the stuff on with a rag and wipe off the excess along the grain within a few minutes. Later, I keep checking for “bleed back” of oil from the wood pores of ring-porous species like oak or walnut. I wipe away any little blobs before they start to firm up. This is usually only an issue on the first coat. I keep checking until there are no more blobs because they are a nuisance to sand away if they firm up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to tell by sight or feel when a coat is cured and ready for another coat, so I gauge by smell<\/strong> \u2013 once it is nearly gone with a quick sniff test, then it is time for the next coat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my experience of trying several oil-varnish<\/strong> finishes, I am not convinced it necessarily makes much difference which oil-varnish mix you use. Watco, for example, is cheaper and I have gotten good results with it. However, I did not like Tried and True because it cured so slowly, at least in its older renditions. I did not find Bush Oil to be anything special. Just my opinions. Still my favorite is Sam’s stuff \u2013 maybe because Sam himself was so awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple more points<\/strong> regarding “bringing out the grain.” This can sometimes backfire such as on some cherry boards where an oil-varnish mix can produce an unpleasant blotchy look. On the other hand, a single coat of oil-varnish might pleasingly emphasize figure and then you can follow up with a few coats of wiping varnish. Note that the oil-varnish must be cured (the smell is gone). Of course, the great rule of finishing applies \u2013 test first.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next:<\/strong> water-based finish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can go a little crazy trying to sort out “oil” finishes, mostly because there is rampant misleading and uninformative labeling among manufacturers who often try to create a mystique surrounding their products.  There are a few key points to help keep things straight: 1. Varnish, including wiping varnish such as Waterlox Original, should not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-7541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques","tag-finishes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7541"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7554,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7541\/revisions\/7554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}