Accelerate linseed oil curing time?

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Eriksen

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Sep 18, 2005
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Can the curing time of the linseed oil be by placing the items in the stove on low heat?
 
I assume you are talking about wood. Check the directions on the container of the oil you are using. Usually 24 hrs is good enough. Use light coats of the oil and repeat until satisfied. Birchwood Caseey gun stock finishes is some good stuff to use.
 
A trick from Mike Stewart is to mix linseed oil and shellac 1:1. This is supposed to bring drying time down to 15 minutes and they polish with steel wool in between as usual.
 
Mix tung oil and Penetrol 50/50. Add a touch of mineral spirits to thin the first coat for penetration. Dries relatively fast for oil. Probably works with linseed too but I prefer tung oil.
 
Verathene has an oil product that I prefer to linseed oils because it does get hard, and fairly fast. Linseed will soften in heat and gets gummy in humid climates. I've done dozens of gunstocks and furniture pieces with the Verathene.

I always use Verathene as a sealer, even when I did oil based finishes because it does dry solid and fills. Wet sanding that will fill the worst grains.
 
Last edited:
kobold said:
A trick from Mike Stewart is to mix linseed oil and shellac 1:1. This is supposed to bring drying time down to 15 minutes and they polish with steel wool in between as usual.
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Do you mean 1 part hard shellac flakes to 1 part linseed oil? Will it dissolve by stirring it or does it need to be heated up?
 
Eriksen said:
Do you mean 1 part hard shellac flakes to 1 part linseed oil? Will it dissolve by stirring it or does it need to be heated up?
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Just stirring. Shellac should never be heated and dispose of any rags carefully, don't just throw them in a bin.
 
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Jewelers and engravers use melted shellac to hold pieces all the time. Why shouldn't it be heated?
 
I think that thinking about time and choosing an oil-type product should never occur at the same time. Any of the "oil" products require a long time to apply right. Most of the crappy, gummy oil finishes we see are the resullt of someone trying to get an oil finish in less time than it needs.

I learned a lot from guys in the musical instrument business about the most modern and effective ways to apply traditional oil finishes. One element they could not improve on was the time it took to get it right. Many experiments were performed trying to accelerate the drying process, using every permutation of heat, wind, every wavelength of light, thinning the products, you name it, it was tried more than once.

The insurmountable problem seemed to be that when heat or wind was used to "speed up" the drying process, it always seemed to slow it down, by creating a hard skin on the surface of the oil, which did not allow the oil beneath that skin to cure in any reasonable amount of time. Most of the gummy amatuer oil finishes that react to any amount of heat had this problem baked in from the early stages of the finishing process: uncured oil sealed away from air, just like the oil when you get it in the sealed bottle from BC!

Thinning the oil looks like it helps, but it produces a much thinner film, requiring more coats, so be careful not to overdo it. This technique can be useful in climates with more humidity, and the attendant longer drying times.

Use good technique, starting with very thin coats, each of which is allowed to DRY COMPLETELY! It will still take a long time, but you will have a finish you can show off to your friends!

If time is part of the equation, choose a modern urethane instead. You can get better protection, faster, and with a little practice you can get various different surface textures. Guys are performing minor miracles with water-based Varathane from the big-box home improvement stores. Fast and easy to apply, cheap, and it wears like high-vanadium steel. I'm pretty sure the "V" in Varathane stands for vanadium.
 
I use Lin-Speed oil or Tru-Oil. Both offer the qualities of linseed without the long drying times. Both products are intended for finishing of gun stocks, so they work real well for knife handles too.
 
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