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Old 07-21-2008, 11:51 PM   #6 (permalink)
Railgun
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Actually there's many oils that will air dry like a varnish and tung oil is one of those. Walnut oil is another. I've got a can of raw tung oil I use for wood projects that will be used in contact with food since natural tung oil is non toxic. The cap has hardened grunge all over it and I have to use vise grips to break it loose these days. Trust me natural tung oil dries just fine. It just takes a few days.

The Formby's likely added a japan drier to make the tung oil dry faster than naturally. Linseed oil dries only after weeks months unless it's "boiled" and then it dries in a day or two to fairly hard and achieves full hardness in a week or so.

If you've got a good base thanks to the mineral spirits making it soak in more than use 4 to 6 coats of unthinned Formby's rubbed on in THIN coats to build up the thickness. Do a coat every couple of days and let it dry between. Just wipe it on with a paper towel or some other applicator than a brush so the coasts are THIN. It'll dry faster that way.

Or you could let it dry until it doesn't smell much and then get a gloss by topping it with a marine varnish. One or two coats tops will do the trick.

Tung oil won't give a truly glossy finish in any event. It's too soft and gummy for that even with the driers. But more to the point by thinning all your coats so far with mineral spirits you haven't yet built up enough skin thickness to even consider rubbing it out. You need to work on building up a film thickness so you have something to work with. And really once you've built up some film by doing this you may find that it has a nice slightly less than gloss finish that looks fine already.
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