Linseed oil soak

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Guitarist7.62

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I have seen some people soak all of their handles In boiled linseed oil, and it looks nice and all but linseed oil is a hardening oil. Won't Soaking the handle make it flex less causing more shock to be transmitted to your hands? And it seems like it could make the handle possibly weaker, seems like it would snap instead of flex or bend if something abnormal happened.(over strikes, prying, twisting). What are your thoughts on soaking handles in boiled linseed oil?
 
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First of all, I think you mean "boiled linseed oil," or BLO. BLO is a film finish, it won't really soak very deeply into the wood, if at all. By "hardening oil," it is meant that the oil will polymerize and fully cure. It won't make the wood handle harder or more brittle. In general woodworking, BLO is generally only used to enhance wood grain before a more durable finish is applied to the wood. I think for a tool handle, it is probably a good finish to use. Just be aware that you may need to reapply it occasionally.
 
I don't think anyone has ever figured on 'stiffening up' a piece of wood via soaking in BLO. I'm an oil user (have never used BLO mind you) so as to coat the handle against weathering and UV and to displace moisture/seal off the lignin cells in the wood of the eye in hopes that shrinkage is minimized during low humidity months.
 
I coat all my tool handles with BLO and on occasion to keep the head tight, I will soak a head in BLO. What are the benifits of soaking the entire handle in BLO?
 
Highlander 20026 said:
a friend of mine does hawk throwing and he soaks his in kerosene, he says it helps alot
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Likely works fine! Wood cells are porous (ie open-ended and empty when the innate water dissipates) so a kerosene souse isn't without it's ready benefits. On the other hand lads in the B.C. bush camps that I remember from 35 years ago used motor oil/chain oil and even cooking oil to do the same thing.
Your buddy ought to try a WD-40 soak; that stuff was concocted 60 years ago to physically displace water and therefore ought to be way better than kerosene.
 
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BLO, FTW .... that's all you gotta know. But it's time for COTS to learn something new today. Is there a specific meaning behind "hardening oil"?
 
Most "oil" based finishes are made with hardening oils. That just means they react with oxygen in the air and chemically change to become a harder polymer finish. Most nut oils do this to some extent, just very slowly. Tung oil and boiled linseed oil are the two most common polymerizing oils used. Walnut oil apparently also does this but I haven't heard about its hardening properties much, I'm assuming it stays oily so long that it's treated as a non-hardening oil by bowl makers and the like.
 
It takes many coats of BLO to build a surface on wood. As such BLO is not a great wood sealer but more of a preservative. BLO is very labor intensive if we use it as a wood seal. That's why many make a BLO wax paste. Wax is a pretty good sealer but it must be re-applied periodically. The thicker the surface film the better a finish will seal it seems. Its that simple.

As a maker of self bows I have not seen a finish that will stiffen wood or keep it from bending. And I have not seen any that will crack because of being bent after they have dried. I guess bows do not bend enough to put that much stress on a finish.
 
garry3 said:
It takes many coats of BLO to build a surface on wood. As such BLO is not a great wood sealer but more of a preservative. BLO is very labor intensive if we use it as a wood seal. That's why many make a BLO wax paste. Wax is a pretty good sealer but it must be re-applied periodically. The thicker the surface film the better a finish will seal it seems. Its that simple.

As a maker of self bows I have not seen a finish that will stiffen wood or keep it from bending. And I have not seen any that will crack because of being bent after they have dried. I guess bows do not bend enough to put that much stress on a finish.
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After you let the BLO dry which can take some time I use a good gunstock wax as a final finish.
 
yoda4561 said:
Most "oil" based finishes are made with hardening oils. That just means they react with oxygen in the air and chemically change to become a harder polymer finish. Most nut oils do this to some extent, just very slowly. Tung oil and boiled linseed oil are the two most common polymerizing oils used. Walnut oil apparently also does this but I haven't heard about its hardening properties much, I'm assuming it stays oily so long that it's treated as a non-hardening oil by bowl makers and the like.
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Interesting, thanks. With this in mind then, I think it's fair to say to the OP, no this isn't an issue.
 
LEGION 12 said:
There will be my friend I think I just have that finish down enough where I can trust myself to do a stock the same.
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It looks great. So traditional.

I smell a hawk and gun or hatchet and gun thread in the future. :thumbup:
 
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