Lin speed oil question.

Knife freaky

Knife freaky

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Dec 1, 2016
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Ok so I've looked and haven't found an answer to my question so please forgive me if this has already come up. I'm finally ready to make my first knife and I picked up a nice piece of stabilized maple burl. My question is would Lin speed oil absorb into the stabilized wood? I really had my heart set on a oil finish just because I love oil finishes. Again sorry if this has come up I found a lot of threads on oils but not about Lin speed.

Daniel.


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Stabilized wood is effectively plastic wood. If it was Stabilized by a professional there will be very little to no pores open to absorb the oil finish. You might get some depth but the majority will sit on the surface. I don't think your going to get the finish your thinking of, but Stabilized wood polishes up very nicely and you can fill small imperfections with epoxy or cyano
 
Linseed, Daniel... That is probably why your search came up empty. I would say that linseed would not be the best way to go with that. Would it work? Yes... but the oiled "look" you want would not be durable using linseed. As you might have suspected, not much soaks into epoxy impregnated wood. I do not have a ton of experience with stabilized wood but buffed carnuba wax seems to do a good job at shining it up. Folks with more experience should be chiming in.
 
Rick Marchand said:
Linseed, Daniel... That is probably why your search came up empty. I would say that linseed would not be the best way to go with that. Would it work? Yes... but the oiled "look" you want would not be durable using linseed. As you might have suspected, not much soaks into epoxy impregnated wood. I do not have a ton of experience with stabilized wood but buffed carnuba wax seems to do a good job at shining it up. Folks with more experience should be chiming in.
Click to expand...

I double and triple checked and the jar said Lin speed. After some more searching I think Lin speed just drys a little quicker. I'll post a post a pic of the jar when I get it


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So it looks like Lin speed is just linseed oil with some other stuff in it to make it dry quicker. I thought it might penetrate a bit better. Sorry for the dumb question. I should've checked a bit more.


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I tried it once and threw it away. Sanded it all off and put some Danish Oil on that knife.
 
Rick Marchand said:
Ah.... hadn't heard of the "Lin-Speed" brand.
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There are a lot of ways that people finish their handles. A number use "Tru Oil" if they want an oil for their handles. I sand to 1200, use two or 3 coats of tru oil and then wax and buff. Get the sheen I like there.
 
Oils are a bit tricky wood wooden handles. On a lot of exotic or stabilzed woods, they will look AMAZING when you put them on, but I find that they tend to darken the wood and mute the contrast between colors. Why I use a wax finish.
 
Most stabilized woods will soak up more oil than you realize. We use a little Lin seed or Tung oil on every knife made here.
 
Lin-Speed oil is a gun finish. It is supposed to allow a faster build of the finish shine. I suspect they added a solvent to speed the drying time. The name is a pun on "linseed" oil. It is pretty much the same as Birchwood-Casey Tru-oil gun stock finish.

I don't care for either one on knives.
 
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Lin Speed basically a slow drying varnish. If you warm it, it will soak in more to your wood. It should be applied using the rubbed in method. Using a very small amount rub into the grain and let dry 24 hours. You can build up multiple coats to fill the grain to where it looks like the varnish is part of the wood. It makes a very fine relatively durable finish.
It probably takes less than one small drop to apply to an entire handle.
Tru Oil is the same material and applied the same.
After applying 3 or 4 coats you can sand back to the grain with fine finishing paper then apply more coats. Depth of the grain determines how many coats to use. Another way to fill grain is to use clear epoxy, dilute with alcohol about 40% and apply to the handle. When set, sand off to so grain is filled only and the apply the Oil finish using multiple thin coats again.
It makes a beautiful clear finish with no apparent build up. Makes beautiful gun stocks as well.
Hope this is helpful for you.
 
golfer1 said:
Lin Speed basically a slow drying varnish. If you warm it, it will soak in more to your wood. It should be applied using the rubbed in method. Using a very small amount rub into the grain and let dry 24 hours. You can build up multiple coats to fill the grain to where it looks like the varnish is part of the wood. It makes a very fine relatively durable finish.
It probably takes less than one small drop to apply to an entire handle.
Tru Oil is the same material and applied the same.
After applying 3 or 4 coats you can sand back to the grain with fine finishing paper then apply more coats. Depth of the grain determines how many coats to use. Another way to fill grain is to use clear epoxy, dilute with alcohol about 40% and apply to the handle. When set, sand off to so grain is filled only and the apply the Oil finish using multiple thin coats again.
It makes a beautiful clear finish with no apparent build up. Makes beautiful gun stocks as well.
Hope this is helpful for you.
Click to expand...

Very helpful! Thanks!


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I've used (and will continue to use) Tru-oil on wooden handles. (See them HERE) While it is an "oil finish" it looks a lot like polyurethane when applied. I would think that it would depend upon the nature of the stabilization of the particular piece of wood whether or not it would soak up oil, but I know that Tru-oil can build up on many non-wood surfaces, such as the tang edge of a full tang knife handle. I think there is a reasonable probability that it would adhere to stabilized wood.

On a different note, I've had some exotic, oily wood on which tru-oil would not cure or solidify and I had to remove it with acetone and go with an unfinished surface.

- Paul Meske
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
 
I've used Tru-Oil and I like it, but I now use General Finishes Arm-R-Seal. It works like Tru-Oil but seems to have a longer shelf life and is much cheaper. I also have some Lin-Speed oil that I may try too. I'm always looking for a faster way to get the shine. I usually have 10-20 coats of oil on before I'm done.
 
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