BLO mixture for Kephart

[FAL'ER]

I too like the smell of BLO. I do like viks technique of increasing the tung oil ratio per coat.

It makes sense that he does it that way as I understand linseed oil penetrates deeper into the wood fiber and stays somewhat gummy than Tung oil which is more of a just below the surface oil that hardens. All my knowledge on the subject was from the deck coatings business a coons age ago.
I always submerged my piece of wood in the "secret sauce" overnight to maximize the penetration and then would pull it out, wipe it off and let it weep for a few days.

Oh, and some community service here. oily BLO rags will catch fire in confined spaces and burn your damn house down.

 

[Mass1632]

Thanks for the community service tip. I had also wondered about soaking. In the past i just wiped a thin coat of blo. Let it dry, scrub it with a cloth, (or sandpaper depending on the how fine the wood was when i started) and repeat the process a few times.

I recall doing a few decks as a kid and i just remember we rolled (probably a few coats) urethane on them once the deck was complete. But memory of a few obscure jobs when i was 14-18 is getting tough to recall

 

[eveled]

I soaked an old dry wooden recurve bow in BLO. it had something ridiculous like an 80 lb pull. I used it a few years. One day I pulled back the string heard a horrific crack. The top limb of the bow broke off and was stuck in the ground about 40feet behind me.

The surface of the wood looked completely saturated and healthy. The middle was dry as dust. The oil had only soaked in about the thickness of two sheets of paper.

 

[GeofS]

I soaked an old dry wooden recurve bow in BLO. it had something ridiculous like an 80 lb pull. I used it a few years. One day I pulled back the string heard a horrific crack. The top limb of the bow broke off and was stuck in the ground about 40feet behind me.

The surface of the wood looked completely saturated and healthy. The middle was dry as dust. The oil had only soaked in about the thickness of two sheets of paper.

Yep, it doesn’t permeate well at all. I’m glad you were ok, sounded scary!

 

[eveled]

Lol. It was a close call I’m sure. I was about 15 or so. My dad was the only person there. He heard it but didn’t see it. He turned around and I was holding half the bow in one hand the string in the other. I’m glad the part that broke was on top and not on the bottom. It could have hit the ground in front of me and bounced back into my face.

 

[Mass1632]

I soaked an old dry wooden recurve bow in BLO. it had something ridiculous like an 80 lb pull. I used it a few years. One day I pulled back the string heard a horrific crack. The top limb of the bow broke off and was stuck in the ground about 40feet behind me.

The surface of the wood looked completely saturated and healthy. The middle was dry as dust. The oil had only soaked in about the thickness of two sheets of paper.

Thats a good example of why not to trust BLO by itself. Good thing no one got hurt at least. Sounds like one of those moments you stand back and say, “man, that really would have hurt if that happened a little different.”