> day 9: the cats knocked over the jar and made a mess
>

"I [heart] empiricism"
"I [indifferent] cats"


> What am I doing wrong? Should I completely immerse the wood? Or should
> some end grain be exposed to air?

Some rather floppy data-points:

About a year ago I did a month-by-month rotation of all of my wooden
mallets (the heads, anyhow):  cut the top off of a plastic milk jug;
mostly-filled with (borg, has driers) BLO; place a note to idicate the
changeover date; repeat for each mallet.

Hoped for increased resillaince and weight, but didn't formally test.
Mostly did it for the voodoo.  Certainly didn't seem to **hurt**
anything -- and I enjoyed the ritual.  (Had to hang them for a week or
so, to "dry", before putting them away.)


Over the years, have never noticed fungus due to BLO.  **Have**
noticed mildew (does mildrew penetrate?), on some previously-BLO'd
handles, which I simply wiped off.  Didn't seem to damage the
structure of the wooden handle.

Have not noticed mildrew in the last few years -- maybe due to using
my tools more, or storing in racks rather than in toolboxes?  Dunno.


Great thread, BTW.  Saving to HD.  :)


--Travis  (Brisbane, AU)