Raw Linseed Oil

[Reeltree]

Saw an old dusty gallon of raw linseed oil beside the boiled linseed gallons in the old country hardware store the next county over.  On the front of the can states " to use with iron and metal coating and finishes",  at a little over $30.00 for the gallon.  I can't recall seeing any raw linseed for quit some time or is it just my narrow vision

[Frosty]

Ace, Home Depot, Walmart, paint stores, etc. carry gallon cans of raw linseed oil or so Mr. Google says.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Marc1]

Raw or boiled, not a particularly good thing to apply to your finished product. The difference between raw and boiled is the drying speed. Heat starts the oxidation / polymerisation process so boiled will make a film quicker plus they add drying agents (oxidising agents) to it. Raw dries slower but eventually will dry too, and eventually will come off the steel and peel. Best is to use beeswax, candle wax, paraffin wax and you can soften them up with a solvent like turps. that stuff will never solidify (as in harden polymerise) and can alway be either removed or another coat applied or if you leave it in the sun and rub it with a rug will come back as new. 

Or you can use something better like plumbago.

 

[JHCC]

I agree that applying linseed oil to a cold piece is not a good idea, for all the reasons @Marc1 describes. However, applying oil to a hot workpiece will give you a fairly durable black finish, not unlike a well-seasoned frying pan. If I had your raw linseed oil, that's what I'd do with it; just make sure to let your workpiece cool to black heat before application.

Lately, I've been using a mix of tung oil, turpentine, and beeswax in roughly equal thirds: it stays soft in the jar, goes on easily, and rubs out to a nice finish.

[Marc1]

Yep, hot steel, instant oxidation, black stuff will stay put. 

However heating up a beadhead to apply oil to it would be a challenge

[gote]

Yes beeswax is "that stuff will never solidify" meaning it will remain sticky covering itself with dust. My daughter bought a piece of old furniture treated this way and eventually had an annoying job of getting it off. The linseed oil treatment is referred to as schwarzbrennen or svartbränning in Germany and Sweden respectively and is the traditional surface coating of blacksmithh work.

I only know plumbago as house plants. ????

[SLAG]

Plumbago is the old name for graphite.

It is also a plant name.

SLAG.

[Marc1]

Ah yes, furniture and steel are different story ... well not if the furniture is steel  of course ha ha ... anyway ... plumbago, yes that's the problem with google, it (he?) does not really know everything. ... yes get that every time I mention it. There is an interesting story on graphite, lead pencils that never had lead and the current use of plumbago in metal casting. We used plumbago to coat almost everything we produced when I was ... well a bit younger ... and I also had a bit of a thing with chainsaws and felling trees. My chain were wearing out a bit faster than I wanted so I decided to add plumbago to the chain oil. After all it's graphite right? Wrong. My chain stretched out horribly in a matter of minutes. In fact it's a mixture of graphite and clay. The product sold in powder form is usually produced by grinding broken crucibles and someone told me also electric motor brushes. i don't really know if it is true but certainly not a good lubricant. That I know

PS

Plumbago was a very common product not too long ago to rub wood fired heaters, stoves and anything domestic that was cast iron, and also I am told steam locomotives, but that was a bit before my time 

[gote]

It so happens that I (or rather my wife) has a Plumbago plant in the window sill. Nice fragrance when it is in flower. The connection between Lead (Plumbum) and graphite eludes me - Colour?.

Aah now I found it The amount of knowledge that this site inspires is amazing - even if some is useless.

"The confusion began with the English, who started using a new mineral called plumbago to write and draw with. In the late 16th century, the residents of Seathwaite in Barrowdale, Cumbria, had stumbled upon a deposit of an intriguing new mineral. The mineral had interesting physical properties – it shimmered, it was solid and black, had a greasy feel and left a mark upon your hands when rubbed. The mineral was so much like the lead ores found at the time that the residents called it plumbago – which is Latin for lead ore, or colloquially, black lead. The locals soon began using the material to mark their sheep, which they had in plenty. Before long, someone found that plumbago also made excellent marks on paper."

Thus lead pencil.

[Marc1]

Yep ... and you will find plenty who believe pencil have led in them or used to, including my rather ignorant primary school teacher who also told me in no uncertain terms that in the year 2000 all cars would fly. 

Just to clarify, pure graphite is an excellent lubricant and rather expensive. Plumbago is it's poor cousin. The modern version of Graphite as lubricant is  molybdene disulfite

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Depending on the piece, I use automotive clear coat in the spray can to protect it. Of course with food utensils it's bees wax or olive oil applied to warm steel.

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, Marc1 said:

Just to clarify, pure graphite is an excellent lubricant and rather expensive. Plumbago is it's poor cousin. The modern version of Graphite as lubricant is  molybdene disulfite

Powdered graphite (like the kind that John Deere sells as a seed lubricant) makes a very good lube for pinching and drifting when mixed with melted beeswax.

[Dave51B]

15 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Powdered graphite (like the kind that John Deere sells as a seed lubricant) makes a very good lube for pinching and drifting when mixed with melted beeswax.

 Is there some kind of ratio I could use to mix up a batch?            Thanks               Dave

[Alan Evans]

7 minutes ago, Dave51B said:

 Is there some kind of ratio I could use to mix up a batch?            Thanks               Dave

I use flake graphite for both burnished paint finishes and punching/drifting lubricant. Rocol sold it as Foliac 4B. My last sackful came from a graphite dealer, David Hart Feckenham, Worcestershire. There must be one or two suppliers in most countries. Same sack has lasted 20 years!

I used to mix it with my homemade Renaissance wax (Microcrystalline and Polythene waxes in White Spirit) because that is what I had around. The wax just acts as a carrier to hold the graphite onto the punch or drift so the ratio is largely immaterial...basically as much graphite as you can get in. In an open pot the white spirit evaporates so you need to thin it down occasionally. The last few years I have been mixing the graphite with Molyslip brand MWL which stays gloopy almost indefinitely. Not nearly as pleasant a smell as the wax when it burns off however.

Alan

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, Alan Evans said:

The wax just acts as a carrier to hold the graphite onto the punch or drift so the ratio is largely immaterial...basically as much graphite as you can get in.

Basically this. I filled a soup can half-full of graphite, topped it up with beeswax, put it in a pan of water on the stove (improvised double-boiler) to melt, and stirred it all up once the wax melted. 

[PaperPatched]

10 hours ago, Marc1 said:

Yep ... and you will find plenty who believe pencil have led in them or used to, including my rather ignorant primary school teacher who also told me in no uncertain terms that in the year 2000 all cars would fly. 

Just to clarify, pure graphite is an excellent lubricant and rather expensive. Plumbago is it's poor cousin. The modern version of Graphite as lubricant is  molybdene disulfite

It may be the continental difference, but stateside it's Molybdenum disulfide for anyone trying to look it up .

 

[Dave51B]

 Thanks guys. I have some graphite seed lube powder and plenty of bees wax. I'll give it a go....about 50/50 or so...   Life is Good         Dave

[JerryCarroll]

I have used acrylic floor finish for years--seems to be durable. Maybe I will switch to some of these formulas. Very interesting thread.

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, JerryCarroll said:

I have used acrylic floor finish for years--seems to be durable. Maybe I will switch to some of these formulas. Very interesting thread.

For punch lube? I've never heard of that one. How's it work?

Frosty The Lucky.

[JerryCarroll]

Not referring to punch lube, I was referring to the postings about coating for such projects as flowers. 

[BeaverNZ]

I believe that Lanolin also makes a good protective film and I have also used a beeswax floor polish successfully too, When using boiled Linseed oil be very carful not to leave the rags lying around as its very good at spontainious combustion and burning your workshop down Cheers Beaver

 

[Dave51B]

 

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Evans said:

The wax just acts as a carrier to hold the graphite onto the punch or drift so the ratio is largely immaterial...basically as much graphite as you can get in

 I mixed up a batch....Just melted the beeswax and keep stirring in the seed lube graphite till it made a thick paste. Probably 1 part wax and 4 or 5 parts graphite. I tried it out drifting a tomahawk eye. It seemed to work a lot better than the coal dust I had been using.           Thanks guys             Life is Good                        Dave