Made a stitching awl and... ruined it with linseed oil

[DrmCa]

Made an awl from a patio umbrella shaft and a 1/4" mini chuck from the eBay, and coated it with Recochem boiled linseed oil.

It said on the label to let dry for 8 hours, and from my past experience I knew it took about that long for boiled linseed oil to dry up.

But this does not dry up at all. It is still sticky after several weeks in sunlight at a room temperature. I can imagine someone's horror and frustration if they coated their home reno project or furniture with this. Oh boy!

[OLDNSLOW]

I know a fella out here in TN that uses it on custom pool cues and it does not react like that at all that I am aware of, but it could be the type of wood, or a different type of oil, I don't really know anything about the oil and a little bit more about wood, did you try and wet sand it with some 1000 grit to see what it would do?

[Northmount]

Wipe it down with a solvent such as varsol or other paint thinner for oil based paints.  Might have to do that 2 or 3 times to remove the sticky partially set BLO.

Tom

[Matt S]

Sounds more like raw linseed than boiled. Perhaps it was mislabelled? As Northmount says wipe it down with a solvent. Turpentine works best for linseed but most petrochem solvents should work.

[electrathon]

4 hours ago, Matt S said:

Sounds more like raw linseed than boiled. Perhaps it was mislabelled? As Northmount says wipe it down with a solvent. Turpentine works best for linseed but most petrochem solvents should work.

I agree with this.  It sounds like raw, not boiled.  If it is, it will remain sticky.  Do your best to remove it.

[DrmCa]

It was labeled, smelled and felt like boiled to me. Recochem are either crooks, or totally incompetent. Unfortunately this is typical for everything for DIY sold in Canada: they want you to waste time and money, end up ruining the project and having to call a contractor.

If I will use any solvent, the cost will be more than making a brand new one and coating it properly.

[brmax]

Im positive you need to use a thinner to remove it as much as possible. It will list a type on your can, your linseed oil purchased. Boiled or raw takes and extremely long time to dry out. If it does so quickly it does indeed have a blending solvent and other things to speed the dry process.

Its a bit tougher finding raw linseed oil as its not as clean, thus pro painters would avoid. They used linseed oil, like boiled for mixing in oil based paints for smoothing, especially in hi heat situations. 

It has been commonly used in older window glazing compounds, it helps in several ways some are: wood conditioning, hi temps/drying to fast, some adhesion and finally some sealing abilities. The sealing is ancient old and now has many many better blends. 

I above mentioned blends above as linseed is still used in mixes but it needs its best placed application. 

As you may know other extremely old names have there uses; lacquer, tung oil, varnishes. 

With the present application I would now /still use a solvent base finish. This after the thining/removal as much as possible and thorough drying.

I will say it has been a go to for me. I used it in applications above as mentioned with great success additions of applying to new and some older low-boy excavation equipment trailer decks. On these trailers i used turpintine for thinner, it is an outside use thinner for sure.

Good day

Floyd

ps: you could try some spray lacquer in the wood worker section. 

Edited April 12, 2018 by brmax

[Matt S]

 

1 hour ago, DrmCa said:

It was labeled, smelled and felt like boiled to me. Recochem are either crooks, or totally incompetent. Unfortunately this is typical for everything for DIY sold in Canada: they want you to waste time and money, end up ruining the project and having to call a contractor.

If I will use any solvent, the cost will be more than making a brand new one and coating it properly.

You don't have any sort of solvent on hand already? White spirit works on linseed, though I think you call it mineral spirits or something. It's a cheap petroleum-derived solvent, clear like water but oily in texture and with a very strong, unique smell. 99% of households in the UK have a bottle of it collecting dust in the kitchen, shed or garage for cleaning paintbrushes.

Out of interest how did you apply the linseed? Ten years ago I bought an axe with a bone-dry handle and really slopped the raw oil on. It took a couple months to go off in a warm sunny room but it dried eventually. Nowadays I'm a little less patient. Very dry tool handles get a soaking in thinned raw oil for a day before being wiped down and put in the rack or toolbox. I rub a little raw linseed into the handles whenever I feel like procrastinating. That's the trick with linseed: if you want it to be usable in a short length of time give it a wipe and no more. You're not looking for a 1mm thick coating like it's been dipped in plastic -- in fact you should barely be able to feel it's there at all until you've put a half dozen coats on, each drying completely before putting on the next.

The other factor to consider is what effect does the wood have? Perhaps it's a naturally very oily wood which won't absorb any more oil?

I know it's not to everyone's taste but I don't feel like all tool handles need a finish. I have dozens of awls, edge shaves, files and knives which have never had any sort of oil, paint or varnish added to them and they all work fine. Over time they get naturally polished with use.

[brmax]

Just a bit of positive information for you. Refined linseed oil has been and still is used on wood and custom wood gunstocks. I.e. ( lin-speed) It is a slow dry product with thin coats, easily estimate a 2 week period. 

Another very important infrastructure aspect with linseed oil. The product has been known throughout my career and even now in my retirement linseed oil has been used extensively in transportation.  In this, areas or regions that may use salt, and other liquid ice treatments like calcium and or beet juice. In this situation linseed oil has been used for sealing certain, more expensive parts of roads like bridge road surfaces. This includes general raised roadways and or over passes. This application is a pre autum or frost “ maintenance “ investment. 

Something a bit closer to home for ya is my freinds in the great north (Canada ) are the world largest producer of flax / linseed, this amount is double of the next largest producer. 

 

Good day there

Floyd

[DrmCa]

No need to go full Morgan Freeman on me, thanks, I'll make a new one anyway.

Stay away from Recochem BLO , unless this is just an isolated incident with a bad batch, but I don't care anymore. BLO is not something you can generally get wrong - you either boil it, or you don't, there is no middle ground. Chiao!