Handle Finishing Options: Why Linseed Oil?

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mhutch

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Yes, I know, it's the traditional finish and it's been used for generations by everyone and their grandpa. What I'm curious about is why most folks continue to use linseed oil given the plethora of options out there, many of which offer more protection or durability.

For those that don't frequent the woodworking community, the table above is straight out of Bob Flexner's book Understanding Wood Finishing. It's considered one of the best all-encompassing guides to different types of wood finishes and their characteristics. From my reading I've gotten the impression that a basic oil finish really doesn't offer much in the way of protection or weatherproofing, and this idea that some people get about building up the finish with a dozen or so coats of BLO is not all that useful in terms of increasing its protective properties. In addition, linseed oil doesn't really penetrate very deeply. Even when thinned with a solvent, its penetration is minimal. I can confirm this from my own experience. I've taken handles that had 10 or more coats of linseed oil and gotten down to raw wood with a few strokes of sanding.

Based on the characteristics of different finishes, it seems to me that linseed oil is actually one of the worst choices for protecting a wood handle. Now, before anyone jumps on me, I do use BLO on all my axe and tool handles. I love the look and feel of an oiled handle, and I haven't had any real issues with durability or weatherproofness. In all reality, I am pretty meticulous in caring for my tools and they rarely get abused so I would probably be just fine not finishing the wood at all. But I wonder how they would hold up if they ever did have to go a long period of time without any maintenance, or if they were getting wet frequently.

So...why don't folks at least use different oil finishes like tung oil, an oil/varnish blend, or a wiping varnish? Has anyone experimented with other finishes?
 
Blasphemy!:eek:
I wouldn't question Bob Flexner at all.
I think most people don't like a finish that builds on the surface of the handle. Slick surface and blisters or something.
Bees wax helps but, ya linseed oil is just a preservative.
 
My reason is it works, is relatively cheap,and is easy to reapply. Plus I like the smell of it.
 
Maybe it's the 0 for film build that carries the day. It still feels like a real (natural?) piece of wood unlike some of those other finishes.

Plus, what spike said.
 
i have been thinking about experimenting with carnauba wax. I have some in its pure form. It is very hard. If I remember right that old axe guy said he used it but not sure in what form he was using it and I forgot to ask when the subject came up.
 
Linseed oil is not cheap at my hardware stores, at 9$ a quart. It's on par with many others. Thanks for posting the page from this book. I'll keep looking at it. DM
 
I've done a number of handles with Formby's Tung Oil (a wiping varnish). I apply it after several coats of BLO. It does provide a more water resistant finish plus I like the look. I've recently used some Tung/Citrus 50/50. It makes a nice finish but it's slow to cure and slow to build up. It's probably a better finish than the Formby's but it's a coats and more waiting. I can re-coat with Formby's the next day. The 50/50 takes several days to cure.
 
I think the deal is that none of those features of the other finishes matter in this application. The only thing he lists under durability and protection is resistance to liquids penetrating the surface. Keeping the wood healthy is part of durability in my view and oil is required to keep it healthy. Coatings may be "durable" and water "resistant" when they sit in a house collecting dust and condensation rings, but get them outside bending and flexing and then leave them out and see how water resistant they are. And then try to reapply oil through a barrier that is water resistant. Water or liquid resistant is not the same as weather resistant and wood will do a good job degrading those finishes from the inside out if left outside. Old dry furniture can have a beautiful coating of whatever on it, but it's still just old dried out furniture on the inside. Oils and waxes aren't finishes, they are products for caring for wood that you care about. Hard coatings are for wood you don't care about. The best way to protect wood from water is to not get it wet and when you do, you dry it off and apply oil, maybe a quick rub down with some steel wool. Whatever suits ya, but the bottom line is, wood and water don't mix, no sense trying to fight mother nature about it. She will reclaim even the most naturally rot resistant woods if given enough time, regardless of how much candy you coat on the outside of it.
 
I have some wood bows that get some hard use and abuse. Particularly the one I use for fishing. It's about two decades old and gets nothing but a varnish. I bow fish out of a canoe and swimming is quite common as is just getting stepped on and bounced around in the bottom of the canoe with water, sand, blood and beer. I add another coat on occasion but nothing else would do near as good of a job. Moisture and wood bows don't mix to well.
BTW the varnish I use on it is Tru-Oil.
 
I started using tung oil and beeswax a few years ago same natural warm feeling in hand but water can't bead up and run off fast enough.
 
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BlO and tung oil, or other penetrating finishes like WATCO (Formby's and WATERLOX are examples of "oil" finishes that build up a film so they are in a different league) are great because they do the essential job of sealing the pores of the wood. This gives your handles a fighting chance against moisture and stain penetration from your hands or from the environment.

These penetrating oils fill the pores before the moisture can. They also have the advantage that they can be easily reapplied so that your protection can be renewed from time to time. Penetrating oils are only so good and yes there is nothing to gain from applying multiple coats once the essential filling of the pores has been accomplished.

I prefer a build up finish on my handles, usually after I have sealed the pores with a penetrating oil or with a thinned version of my "varnish". All in all the protection is temporary. As cityofthesouth aptly wrote about Mother Nature "She will reclaim even the most naturally rot resistant woods if given enough time, regardless of how much candy you coat on the outside of it."


Ray
 
I would hate to swing an axe that had a raw wood handle...that sounds like blister city. And seasonal variances would allow for the wood to shrink and swell much more. I helped hang a friend's Keen Kutter, and he never got around to oiling the handle and by the time the dry winter showed up, the head came loose on it's first use.

I put Formby's tung oil finish (i.e. mostly varnish) on a mattock handle, but I don't like the feel...too much like plastic. The BLO finish, if applied well, seems to penetrate just fine, and I've had to sand quite a bit to get through a few of my handles' coatings. For me, it's cheap, dries quickly, and feels the best. I use it on my machete handles as well, and I'm very happy with how they feel...grippy with just enough slip to prevent blisters.

Oh, and I'm not sure I would rate the water resistance so low. Once a few coats are on, the water may not bead up like a wax, but it certainly seems to sit on the surface. Compared to raw wood, I think it has a pretty good resistance to water absorption. My wood-handled kitchen knives have Tried & True Danish Oil on them (i.e. linseed oil), and they, too, have some water resistance.
 
I like to use linseed oil because it's a non-film finish and I have it on hand already. Mixed with wax would be even better if it was applied right. My goals are water shedding and easy to renew - that's why I prefer this kind of finish over a film type finish.

On my boots I use tallow when I can get it, commercial paste dressing when I'm out of tallow. I put it on thick and then hit it with a heat gun so it can wick into the leather (out here the leather cracks quickly if it's not lubed). Might try the same trick with wax on the end grain of an axe handle.
 
I've used tallow on my boots for a couple winters. It was great on the leather but destroyed the stitching. It's slightly acidic.
 
rjdankert said:
Does not look so good for BLO eh?


Research paper on moisture-excluding effectiveness (MEE): https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrp/fplrp462.pdf

Some bits from the publication:
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More light reading here: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr190/chapter_16.pdf


Bob
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing, I'll have to sit down and go through this one. Just glancing at it, if I'm interpreting the data correctly, it does look like BLO is considerably worse than a lot of other finishes. In the first column for MEE, t=1, the numbers are already pretty low. Tung oil is a considerable improvement over BLO. Some of the varnishes have numbers in the 80's at t=1. So it looks to me like that data supports the idea that BLO really is a pretty bad choice if moisture resistance is a priority. Wax, on the other hand, is looking pretty good.

On another note, since BLO alone had better water resistance than BLO mixed with mineral spirits, I wonder if that means that the thicker surface film built up by plain BLO is the cause of the increased moisture resistance.
 
RayseM said:
BlO and tung oil, or other penetrating finishes like WATCO (Formby's and WATERLOX are examples of "oil" finishes that build up a film so they are in a different league) are great because they do the essential job of sealing the pores of the wood. This gives your handles a fighting chance against moisture and stain penetration from your hands or from the environment.

These penetrating oils fill the pores before the moisture can. They also have the advantage that they can be easily reapplied so that your protection can be renewed from time to time. Penetrating oils are only so good and yes there is nothing to gain from applying multiple coats once the essential filling of the pores has been accomplished.

I prefer a build up finish on my handles, usually after I have sealed the pores with a penetrating oil or with a thinned version of my "varnish". All in all the protection is temporary. As cityofthesouth aptly wrote about Mother Nature "She will reclaim even the most naturally rot resistant woods if given enough time, regardless of how much candy you coat on the outside of it."


Ray
Click to expand...

It's probably too much for me to post pics of an entire chapter but one of the things Mr. Flexner discusses is the idea of finish penetration. According to him, none of those finishes really penetrate much at all. It's the pore-sealing that gives the finish its protective properties. By saturating the entire surface and forming a continuous film the finish creates a layer between moisture and the wood. At least, that's my understanding from reading.
 
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