At 09:46 PM 7/12/00 -0400, Jim Cook wrote:
>Tung oil, it's been mentioned, is inconsistent. I've tried
>to use "tung oil finish" and maybe that's the problem for
>me. Possibly because some planes are drier than others, the
>tung oil soaks into the wood and becomes blotchy, or if the
>wood is not dried out, the finish polymerizes and looks
>too much like polyurethane.
Much of what is sold as "tung oil finish" is varnish or an oil-varnish
mix. Real tung oil is usually sold as "pure tung oil."
As long as we're debating, I prefer not to do anything permanent (oil or
varnish) to a tool that's in good shape and hasn't been oiled before. I
have a few virtually untouched beech planes, and the idea that they would
have survived more than a hundred years that way only to have me come along
and oil them is sort of disturbing.
One of the more annoying experiences I've had with a tool was a nice
Pittsburgh molding plane (W. Even) that somebody had soaked in linseed (I
think), then reassembled and allowed to dry into a single unit. Nothing I
tried could coax it apart. I ended up letting it cycle through a couple of
seasonal changes, after which it loosened up enough to be tapped apart.
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