I just found something on the interwebs and am all excited. Pure tung oil, from realmilkpaint.com Now I know what I am going to refinish my beautiful oak kitchen cabinets with, and I got to figure out how to put real floor boards over concrete slab, and finish them with tung oil. Got some non-toxic water-based finish that I figured was the best I could do for the cabinets, but for one thing, I really hate anything that will just flake off, or if it gets scuffed, you have to strip it down and refinish the whole thing. Wood absorbs tung oil, and if it gets scuffed, you just rub a little more oil into it.
Somehow it took me this long to even look up if *pure* tung oil was available anywhere. I wasn’t about to use the TOXIC “tung oil” that is mostly petroleum, that you get in the stores. Guess I got it in my head that that’s all there was available. I tried linseed oil on a few things, and that just ended up sticky. Maybe this will work. Anybody used pure tung oil before?
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Tung oil: Wood turners use it all the time to finish turnings. Sometimes, for really porous grain, it is advisable to first dress with sanding sealer (buy it in most diy stores), allow time for it to dry thoroughly, half hour or so, then sand back to a smooth finish to the chosen grade before applying oil but wood in good condition can be dressed with tung oil straight after the final abrasive work has been completed. Most important is to apply liberally (well, not so it drips off, you understand) and set a timer to buzz you at 20 minutes and then wipe off any surface excess with a clean, lint-free, dry cloth, then allow to dry for at least 24 hours (longer is always good if you have the time) before applying another coat. This may be why your linseed was tacky – perhaps you didn’t wipe off the excess after 20 minutes. Most finishing oils require this simple procedure or it will go tacky on you. Even then it’s a simple matter to correct the problem. Just use industrial alcohol/white spirit/metholated spirit to clean the surface (be sure to have really good ventilation and keep away from naked (can we say naked on this site?) flames) cut back the surface with fine grade abrasive and re-apply the oil, remembering, as always, to wipe off after 20 minutes. You could also, for a superfine finish, use wet & dry abrasive sheet of a high grit number (I go up to 2500 grit on some of my smaller turnings; the abraded wood dust is held in the oil and also helps to fill any slight gullies in the run of the grain). The magic bit is seeing the dry grain change into something spectacular as the oil hits it. Brilliant!
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Yep, and Joy let me tell you after 5 or 6 coats you will have beautiful wood, and a set of biceps to envy!lol The best way I found to use tung oil was to but it on and rub with my bare hands, until it was really sticky, then rub in some more, once it drys it looks and wears great ( I did a rock maple dining room table ) still looks “good” after 25 years, 5 adults and 15 kids.