January 3, 20233 yr The term ‘denatured alcohol’ refers to alcohol products adulterated with toxic and/or bad tasting additives (e.g., methanol, benzene, pyridine, castor oil, gasoline, isopropyl alcohol, and acetone), making it unsuitable for human consumption. This is followed by wear gloves, safety glasses, etc etc when handling denatured alcohol. One more question if I may. My mix is 50/50 linseed oil, turps, a quart of both and an egg or so sized piece of beeswax. At the store chicken eggs come in different sizes, small, medium, large, extra large, jumbo. Which size egg should I use as a starting point?
January 3, 20233 yr 20 hours ago, anvil said: Linseed oil of any type is thick and takes a long time to cool, even when applied hot. The turps thins it out and enhances drying, especially when applied hot. An additional detail on this: Linseed oil doesn't harden through the evaporation of solvents, but when its main component of alpha-linolenic acid polymerizes on exposure to the oxygen in the air. Dilution with turpentine means that a thinner layer of oil is left behind when the turps evaporates, and that thinner layer doesn't take as long to oxidize. (The heat of the metal also increases the speed of polymerization, much like heating a frying pan to season it.)
January 3, 20233 yr On the quote, I meant "a long time to dry" not cool. When you apply this hot oil finish hot, the drying is pretty instantaneous. To use it for a cold finish, add "a healthy pour of japan dryer. By the time you get to the end of a rail section, its dry and ready for another coat. I keep the two finishes separate and make sure you keep the cold finish sealed as the japan dryer will quickly evaporate. When you use this hot oil finish as opposed to applying either just linseed oil or thinned with turps cold, to me it doesn't appear to make a coating, it appears to penetrate the surface of the iron and bond with the iron. Weather this is the case or not, the difference between hot and cold is like night and day. Cold looks and is a coating. Hot appears to look like satin, soft, warm, and inviting to touch.
January 3, 20233 yr That's funny; I read it the way you intended it, and didn't even notice you said "cool" instead of "dry" until you mentioned it. Another nice touch is to give your piece a coat of black shoe polish after the oil is completely cured.
January 5, 20233 yr On 1/2/2023 at 8:41 PM, Glenn said: chicken eggs come in different sizes Sorry, I missed this. The key words here are "or so". Altho I've never checked, I don't think the proportions, including the amount of beeswax changes the look of the finish, but it might. So check it out if you are going to make radical changes from your normal mix. The amount of beeswax does change the consistency. More wax makes for a paste, less makes for a liquid. I prefer a liquid. I almost put "from walnut size to the size of an egg". Thats kinda my mental gage for amount. Another beeswax tip. When making hinges, When you finish applying this finish and its still warm enough to melt beeswax, melt some into the barrel. It will make your hinge action very smooth and will last a very long time as a lube for this. It fills in the imperfections in the barrel and on the pin and just doesn't go away.
January 5, 20233 yr On 1/2/2023 at 10:41 PM, Glenn said: chicken eggs come in different sizes Who said anything about a chicken egg?
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.