New haft end grains still taking BLO after two months?

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Sep 25, 2015
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Is that normal? It is a Link handle. I don't mind as I have so many projects going on I wouldn't be using it either way. Just wondering if its normal that a haft would still be taking BLO for this long. I got sick of checking it & brushing on some more BLO every few days so I submerged the whole hatchet in BLO. Thursday night I took it out, wiped it off and let it dry. Yesterday I painted BLO on the top of the haft/eye and standing there I could watch it soak in. Do I just keep it dunked in BLO for a few more weeks/months (perhaps all winter?) until it stops soaking it up? It is in a room where the ambient temperature is as low as 40* overnight (with the heat off) and it can get up to 65-70 during the day or when I'm in there working. Should I keep it in a location where temperatures are warmer or more consistent on average?
Thanks.
 
Sap wood can act like a bundle of little straws. But I'm kinda surprised it's still taking on oil like that. I'm impressed with your persistence. But I'd just call it good at this point. Maybe give it some tung oil to seal it up.
 
no problem, let it soak.
end grain will absorb as much as it will, eventually it will become saturated and quit.
the BLO treatment is simply to give the wood a little protection from moisture and you might say "the elements".
try mixing some pine tar in equal parts with the BLO and after a few days of drying heat the wood surface with a flame source, torch or bbq grill fire. heat will drive the pine tar/blo mixture into the wood not just onto the surface.
buzz
 
Something else is going on. You don't mention the size of the haft, but a middling size axe haft will have 23.6 cubic inches -- or 6,267 drops of fluid. So if your haft was soaking up BLO at the rate of even 1 drop every 13 minutes and the haft was completely hollow, it would be full of BLO in 60 days.
 
Its a Plumb Boy Scout head on a 14" Link brand haft. I have no problem keeping at it with the BLO as most projects right now are keeping me indoors. I'm not concerned with the look of the wood/handle --I just want it sealed and hardened. If it gets dirty because the BLO is a little sticky in the beginning that's fine; it will eventually wear off with use.

As an aside, when I put my father's workbench back together I used BLO and then tung oil on a lot of the wood. I put the oils on the wood before I put the bench back together so that every surface would get coated rather than just the external surfaces. As I was putting the bench back together there were a few places (due to my modifications) that required me to shorten some boards/planks. Even though the wood was mostly 25-year old 2x4's and 4x4 pressure treated (for the legs), I was shocked initially at how much BLO & tung the wood took... and then I was equally shocked at how little the oils penetrated the wood when it was cut. Even after repeated soaking the wood only took oils at the most about 1/8" into the end grains.
 
Funny,

I have axes and other tools, and loose NOS handles laying around here that are 40-75 years old and are in perfect condition with nothing more than whatever skimpy finish was done to them at the factory that long ago.

Apparently the only care tools with wooden handles need is to not be left outside in the weather, and also apparently simply owning tools and "playing" with them has become much more important than actually using them.....
 
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