There is plenty of manufacturer bashing on this forum, and Lord knows
that includes me where I thought it was warranted. And many
contributors have helped steer people to quality retailers/mfgrs,
particularly Lee Valley, which I as a newbie have very much appreciated
too.

But I thought I'd throw in a review of a product I have really come to
like...Tried and True oil finishes.

I live in Michigan, so pretty much the only time you can apply
finishing material outside is during the summertime, roughly defined as
running from early afternoon on July 7th to late afternoon on July 7th.
That means, unless you have a heated shop, you're most likely to be
working inside if you're a hobbyist. Although my shop is in the
basement, I have to do most of my glue-up and finishing in a spare
bedroom.

I love the close-to-the-wood feeling that a BLO finish provides, but
most of the ones I've seen contain solvents and driers, and therefore a
fairly high VOC content. Particularly WATCO.

So lo-and-behold I saw these advertised somewhere as being __boiled__
linseed oil...boiled being defined as actually having been _boiled_.
They have no driers, they have no solvents, they have no VOCs. I can
finish with them and not have to worry about the health effects of
vapors, nor about the "blowing the house to kingdom come" effects too.


And I freakin' love the finish these oils provide. They come in three
flavors...one with pure BLO, one with some natural pine resin added to
act as a semi-varnish, and one which I can't remember and haven't used.


The only downside is that they require a temperature of at least 70
degrees to properly cure, so I run a space heater in the room to
provide that. But they're much less labor-intensive to work, too...you
don't have to flood the surface and keep wiping off for eternity. You
simply put a relatively thin wetting coat on the piece, wait five mins,
and wipe it off. Ten hours later, buff it out, then lather, rinse,
repeat if you want.

My only affiliation with the company is "totally satisfied customer."

On 15 Nov 2005 11:09:47 -0800, wrote:

There is plenty of manufacturer bashing on this forum, and Lord knows
that includes me where I thought it was warranted. And many
contributors have helped steer people to quality retailers/mfgrs,
particularly Lee Valley, which I as a newbie have very much appreciated
too.

But I thought I'd throw in a review of a product I have really come to
like...Tried and True oil finishes.

I live in Michigan, so pretty much the only time you can apply
finishing material outside is during the summertime, roughly defined as
running from early afternoon on July 7th to late afternoon on July 7th.
That means, unless you have a heated shop, you're most likely to be
working inside if you're a hobbyist. Although my shop is in the
basement, I have to do most of my glue-up and finishing in a spare
bedroom.

I love the close-to-the-wood feeling that a BLO finish provides, but
most of the ones I've seen contain solvents and driers, and therefore a
fairly high VOC content. Particularly WATCO.

So lo-and-behold I saw these advertised somewhere as being __boiled__
linseed oil...boiled being defined as actually having been _boiled_.
They have no driers, they have no solvents, they have no VOCs. I can
finish with them and not have to worry about the health effects of
vapors, nor about the "blowing the house to kingdom come" effects too.


And I freakin' love the finish these oils provide. They come in three
flavors...one with pure BLO, one with some natural pine resin added to
act as a semi-varnish, and one which I can't remember and haven't used.


The only downside is that they require a temperature of at least 70
degrees to properly cure, so I run a space heater in the room to
provide that. But they're much less labor-intensive to work, too...you
don't have to flood the surface and keep wiping off for eternity. You
simply put a relatively thin wetting coat on the piece, wait five mins,
and wipe it off. Ten hours later, buff it out, then lather, rinse,
repeat if you want.

My only affiliation with the company is "totally satisfied customer."


you might enjoy some homebrew recipies.

one I use sometimes is straight gloss spar thinned to wiping
consistency with turpentine.

I don't mind the smell of turps (takes me right back to art school...)
and it's not particularly explosive...

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 11:09:47 -0800, wood_newbie wrote:

But I thought I'd throw in a review of a product I have really come to
like...Tried and True oil finishes.

I really really *really* love their finishes. On cherry they are totally
beautiful and amazing. I just spread it on with my bare hands. No aweful
smell, no headaches, no toxic crap and totally beautiful. For the
applications where they are suitable, I will use them everytime. Extremely
highly recommended.

PK

Amazing product review a couple of months back where Tried and True
essentially got blasted and Minwhacks was chosen the best - hmmmmm. If you
haven't tried heating T&T up to about 100° and then spreading it on - you
should give it a try. Have a glue pot? Put some water in it, set the
opened can in and let it warm up. Or some other method of indirectly heating
it (like a double-boiler setup).

I've used it on several projects and when I didn't heat it, it did take
several days for it to stop bleeding on walnut but other than that - love
the finish. I'm not big on finishing so anything I can rub on and have it
look that good gets a big vote from me. I don't mind having to put multiple
coats on or even rubbing it out but what does bug me are the runs and brush
strokes and dust and sanding between coats - T&T eliminates all that.

Bob S.


wrote in message
ps.com...
There is plenty of manufacturer bashing on this forum, and Lord knows
that includes me where I thought it was warranted. And many
contributors have helped steer people to quality retailers/mfgrs,
particularly Lee Valley, which I as a newbie have very much appreciated
too.

But I thought I'd throw in a review of a product I have really come to
like...Tried and True oil finishes.

I live in Michigan, so pretty much the only time you can apply
finishing material outside is during the summertime, roughly defined as
running from early afternoon on July 7th to late afternoon on July 7th.
That means, unless you have a heated shop, you're most likely to be
working inside if you're a hobbyist. Although my shop is in the
basement, I have to do most of my glue-up and finishing in a spare
bedroom.

I love the close-to-the-wood feeling that a BLO finish provides, but
most of the ones I've seen contain solvents and driers, and therefore a
fairly high VOC content. Particularly WATCO.

So lo-and-behold I saw these advertised somewhere as being __boiled__
linseed oil...boiled being defined as actually having been _boiled_.
They have no driers, they have no solvents, they have no VOCs. I can
finish with them and not have to worry about the health effects of
vapors, nor about the "blowing the house to kingdom come" effects too.


And I freakin' love the finish these oils provide. They come in three
flavors...one with pure BLO, one with some natural pine resin added to
act as a semi-varnish, and one which I can't remember and haven't used.


The only downside is that they require a temperature of at least 70
degrees to properly cure, so I run a space heater in the room to
provide that. But they're much less labor-intensive to work, too...you
don't have to flood the surface and keep wiping off for eternity. You
simply put a relatively thin wetting coat on the piece, wait five mins,
and wipe it off. Ten hours later, buff it out, then lather, rinse,
repeat if you want.

My only affiliation with the company is "totally satisfied customer."

BobS wrote:
I'm not big on finishing so anything I can rub on and have it
look that good gets a big vote from me. I don't mind having to put multiple
coats on or even rubbing it out but what does bug me are the runs and brush
strokes and dust and sanding between coats - T&T eliminates all that.

Almost any wiping varnish, or standard brushing varnish thinned to
wiping consistency can do the same. Without a hyped-up price.

Barry