Finish Preferences

A

Axe Master '94

Joined
Sep 24, 2014
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Just wanted to throw out a thread to see everybody's favorite oils/stains/lacquers/etc...

I personally love clean, unlacquered wood and motor oil for my personal stuff, just because it gives a darker finish and I have a lot of it around the garage.

I know most guys on here use BLO/LO, just seeing what else there is and why you guys use it!
 
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I like reusing materials, but I personally wouldn't want to do much handling of used motor oil. YMMV. From the motor oil companies: "Used motor oil is a possible skin cancer hazard based on animal data."

I mainly use flax oil ( =linseed) from the kitchen if it goes past the expiration date.
 
I prefer bee's wax on my tool handles, I have always used it, I got it from my great Uncle. I also got most of my wood working tools from him as well. He was a cabinet maker in the British ship yards during the first part of the last century.
 
I've used BLO, Minwax, and tung oil finish, and Walnut oil. The BLO seems like a great compromise between price and feel, and I like it a lot. I didn't like the feel of the Minwax oil-based stain at all....perhaps I should have mixed a little into the BLO? The tung oil finish is similar to minwax, in that it's a nice hard finish, but I don't like the feel...it's probably best for wooden furniture. I use walnut oil on my wooden kitchen stuff like cutting boards and utensils. It's far and away my favorite to use and it does dry reasonably quickly, and I would use it on the axes except that would be pretty expensive. But I have to say....I gave my cutting board a few coats of walnut oil and brought it back to life...feels fantastic to cut on. I've used mineral oil too, but it doesn't last.

Edit: the above post reminds me my GB small forest axe has a linseed oil/beeswax finish and I am very pleased with it. I may do this in the future if I can find some darker beeswax that isn't crazy expensive.
 
Roughed up a bit with no higher than 100 grit, multiple coats of linseed oil followed by a mineral oil/beeswax hard paste mix I made. This gives me the best grip with gloves and bare-handed.
 
You routinely oil a handle so that it does not constantly shrink or swell up through sunlight/temperature and humidity and sweat-soaked hands. Loose heads, warping,splintering and furring of the wood are what become of 'untreated wood'
Varnish is the easy way out and looks really pretty but it wears off and wherever it cracks or doesn't 'stick' will turn black underneath after it gets thoroughly wet. I've been using teak & tung furniture oil for 35 years (initially happened to have a leftover quart can of it sitting around) and it's never done me any harm. Also use it for wheelbarrows, hammers, shovels and rakes and anything else I have with wood handles, including the oil-finish stocks of some of the 100+ year old rifles I use.
 
I like a couple coats of BLO followed by a couple coats of tung oil. The BLO penetrates and protects better. The tung oil creates a more water resistant coating and is noticeably grippier for me. I love the feel of a tung oil finished haft.
 
I thin spar varnish with about a third mineral spirits or paint thinner and wipe on two or three coats. Even the cheap urethane spar varnish works well this way, as it is more elastic to resist cracking with expansion/contraction from temperature and gives a little more grip than straight varnish, plus it has some UV protection. Staining should be a separate process, although you can tint the spar varnish subtly with an oil stain. For base stain, I like the alcohol-based stains from laurel mountain forge. One thing to keep in mind is that sanding to too high a grit will make the handle slick and shiny. 120 gets rid of splinters, provides more grip and less shine. Just varnish until there are no dry spots.
 
I use a few coats of tung oil with a final top coat of some special "axe wax" that I came up with. I initially used pure beeswax, but I found it too grippy for my top hand so I melted some pure carnauba that I had left over from making a smoking pipe with beeswax until I found my ideal level of gripiness. This produces a nice hard finish that is more durable than pure carnauba and has just enough beeswax to add the right amount of grip without interfering with the sliding motion of my top hand. The other plus is that it smells fantastic, lol.
 
SC T100 said:
I've used BLO, Minwax, and tung oil finish, and Walnut oil. The BLO seems like a great compromise between price and feel, and I like it a lot. I didn't like the feel of the Minwax oil-based stain at all....perhaps I should have mixed a little into the BLO? The tung oil finish is similar to minwax, in that it's a nice hard finish, but I don't like the feel...it's probably best for wooden furniture. I use walnut oil on my wooden kitchen stuff like cutting boards and utensils. It's far and away my favorite to use and it does dry reasonably quickly, and I would use it on the axes except that would be pretty expensive. But I have to say....I gave my cutting board a few coats of walnut oil and brought it back to life...feels fantastic to cut on. I've used mineral oil too, but it doesn't last.

Edit: the above post reminds me my GB small forest axe has a linseed oil/beeswax finish and I am very pleased with it. I may do this in the future if I can find some darker beeswax that isn't crazy expensive.
Click to expand...

Wax rings to seal toilets used to be bees wax. Probably are not now but the properties may be very similiar and they are dark.
 
New wax rings shouldn't be used for anything else.

"Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis"

"Avoid contact with eyes and skin; do not breathe in fumes. Wash thoroughly with detergent and water after handling, before eating, drinking, smoking or using the toilet. Remove contaminated clothing and wash before reuse.
Keep out of reach of children"

"Ingestion: Components of the product have low oral toxicity. May cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if swallowed. "

Source: http://www.laco.com/assets/1/31/wax_bowl_rings.pdf
 
garry3 said:
Wax rings to seal toilets used to be bees wax. Probably are not now but the properties may be very similiar and they are dark.
Click to expand...

I thought about those things when I was making bullet lube for my Hawken rifle. They are made from some nasty synthetic goo, completely unusable for anything else one would use bee's wax to do. Just find a bee keeper in your area and get bulk raw wax cheap. My guy melts it down and pours it into bread pans for me that extra step runs the cost up to $5 for a 2lb block.
 
Not completely unrelated, but does anyone here use any protective paint or coating for their axe heads? I've been restoring a couple old things and I was wondering about what the axe heads may have looked like originally. I know it all pretty much gets worn off in use, but still just curious about it.
 
For the tools that I work with I let my hands do the work. Otherwise I have treated a few restoration jobs with BLO. Maybe new motoroil is worth a try?
 
Square_peg said:
New wax rings shouldn't be used for anything else.

"Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis"

"Avoid contact with eyes and skin; do not breathe in fumes. Wash thoroughly with detergent and water after handling, before eating, drinking, smoking or using the toilet. Remove contaminated clothing and wash before reuse.
Keep out of reach of children"

"Ingestion: Components of the product have low oral toxicity. May cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if swallowed. "

Source: http://www.laco.com/assets/1/31/wax_bowl_rings.pdf
Click to expand...

Holy crap!:eek:

What about old wax rings?:D
 
Old wax rings will surely cause vomiting.

You know you're in for a good time when you got a wax ring in your hand.
wink.gif
 
I typically apply many coats of thinned BLO. Sometimes I put a few coats of tung oil over the top and sometimes I don't. My latest no name double bit is an experiment. I put a few coats of hemp oil on the haft followed by a coat of tung oil. I don't think the hemp oil fully dried and the mix of oils went slightly gummy on the surface so that got lightly sanded. Now that we are having fires the axe is living near the wood stove and about ready for more coats of hemp oil. I think I will leave the tung oil off this one and stick with just the hemp oil.
 
I use BLO and turpentine (3 parts BLO to 1 part turpentine).
The turpentine thins the BLO a bit and allows for a deeper penetration into the wood.
Been using it for years on all my wooden tool handles.
 
I coat the whole axe in BLO, head and all. A few coats right away after hanging and then just re-apply from time to time, or after use.
 
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