Tung oil blend

[Zach LaPerriere]

I'm pretty much obsessed with natural oils. And by natural I mean: no synthetic or chemical dryers or thinners. I just want something that my pickiest customers feel is food grade.

So I'm sharing what I'm hoping will be my final oil for almost everything. It's a blend of pure tung oil, citrus oil (d-limonene), and tree gum rosin. Fun fact: 100% of this oil grows on trees.

Until recently I've been using Tried and True Danish Oil. I like it: but it needs to go on thin and then takes a fair bit of rubbing out to get surface dry. Corey's Tung Oil also needs to go on thin, but the oil viscosity is much closer to water than Danish oil...which means it's faster to apply.

I've been applying Corey's Tung Oil with the bowl still on the lathe. First I wipe it on a little heavy with the lathe power off, then turn the power on and buff the oil in with some friction heat. I use a 2" X 2" cotton cloth, but official safety protocol says only use paper towel because a catch on a large cloth can grab a finger. That's why I only use a small cloth.

One coat seems to be enough for basic use, but repeated coats build and given even greater depth. Tung oil seems to have the deepest "wet" appearance of any oil I've used. I'm seeing greater figure and even a subtle chatoyance in bowls that I've turned dozens of other bowls from the same tree but not seen the chatoyance with Danish oil.

The citrus oil smells great and gets the oil in deeper than straight tung oil. I can't really comment on the tree rosin, other than to say I'm really happy with the finished oil. My early tests show it to be very water resistant. I should say that the true test is a year or so of regular use, and I just haven't been using this oil long enough to have that experience. One thing I'll say about tung oil is that it has a reputation as being the hardiest of the natural oils.

Here's a mountain ash (rowan) small bowl still on the lathe. The picture is just a crummy iphone picture, but you can see some of the figure coming through from the crotch, which was only a small crotch.



I met Corey 25 years ago and built a skin kayak with him in his shop in Anacortes, Washington. He's an amazing and ingenious woodworker and has specialized in building traditional wood frame kayaks and umiaks for somewhere over 30 years. His dad is a retired chemist (and the first to import d-limonene to North America) so Corey approaches chemistry with that background.

For full disclosure, I don't have a financial connection with Corey, but he is an old friend that I'd lost touch with until I looked his company up and saw that he's selling tung oil. Here's his tung oil blend on his website. He also sells pure tung oil and other ingredients:

https://shop.skinboats.com/Coreys-Amazing-Tung-Oil-32-oz-cato.htm

 

[Owen Lowe]

Interrrresting, verrrry interesting.

Tried & True, Osmo, and now this. Thanks! (both sarcastic and un-sarcastic)

 

[Bill Boehme]

I wonder if your rosin is different from the rosin that I know which primarily comes from pine and fir trees. Fiddle players use it to rosin up their bow and baseball pitchers use a rosin bag to get a better grip on the ball. However, there's a new rosin these days. If you go to the Internet, for every old pine rosin there are a thousand of the new rosin hits. What is it you ask? Rosin extracted from cannabis. How is it used? I suppose that you can let your imagination run wild. Can it be used as a finish on wooden bowls? Well, it is rosin.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

I wonder if your rosin is different from the rosin that I know which primarily comes from pine and fir trees. Fiddle players use it to rosin up the bow and baseball pitchers use a rosin bag to get a better grip on the ball. However, there's a new rosin there days. If you go to the Internet, for every old pine rosin there are a thousand of the new rosin hits. What is it you ask? Rosin extracted from cannabis. How is it used? I suppose that you can let your imagination run wild. Can it be used as a finish on wooden bowls? Well, it is rosin.

That's funny Bill. An old friend who loves to tease me (as all good friends do) joked about me being down in the shop smoking bowls, not turning bowls.

Seriously: it's Brazilian Tree Rosin, which is indeed from pine trees. According to Corey, this is the highest quality rosin. On his website he says:

Gum Rosin is derived from the tapping of living pine trees. Distillation of the crude pine resin yields gum rosin and gum turpentine in varying ratios, usually 4 to1. Gum Rosin is a brittle, transparent, glassy solid. It is insoluble in water but soluble in many organic solvents. WW grade is derivative of “Pinus Ellioti”.

Uses: Hot melt and pressure sensitive adhesives; mastics and sealants;
varnishes; ester gum; soldering compounds; core oils; insulating
compounds; soaps; paper sizing, printing inks.

Industrial Applications

♣ Synthetic resin,
♣ Rubber
♣ Tackifiers and sealants
♣ Inks
♣ Coatings and lacquers
♣ Soldering fluxes
♣ Paper size modifier​

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Another thing that's pretty cool about Corey is that he tells you exactly what is in his blend and will sell you the raw ingredients if you have a hankering for making your own.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I'm very interested to see what you think of this finish after using it for a while. I just bought a new can of Old Masters 100% Pure Tung Oil a couple weeks ago. My old can is probably 15 years old and starting to gel a bit. Pure tung oil is almost as thick as gear oil, but I never thin it with anything.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Pure tung oil is almost as thick as gear oil, but I never thin it with anything.

If you feel like venturing into the home chemist field a little, you might try cutting your tung oil with citrus oil 30-50%. At least for a first coat. I'd never used d-limonene until recently, and it is a remarkable thinner—a food grade equivalent to turpentine. Corey's tung oil blend is thinner than olive oil, or at least olive oil in Alaska...which is probably thicker than in Texas unless your air conditioning is on. Or maybe I should say it's a touch thicker than walnut oil, but not much.

 

[Dean Center]

Zach,
One of the knocks on pure tung oil is that it takes a very long time to cure, hence addition of compounds to speed the drying in many commercial products. Can you comment on your experience with the Corey's blend on curing time? Not fair to compare it to Danish oil, but perhaps plain pure tung oil, walnut oil, or BLO. Thanks.

 

[JeffSmith]

I’m interested to see how your experimentation works out - been in the market for a new bowl finish for a while now. I just used Osmo Top Oil for the first time yesterday - second coat went on today.

Plant based oil, it is food safe according to the label. It is remarkable in that it doesn’t darken the wood’s natural color when it dries, feels great to the hand, and has the soft satin sheen I prefer. So far, it’s the best thing I’ve used. If it lives up to its billing as being long-lived, it looks like a great option to petro chem-based options.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Zach,
One of the knocks on pure tung oil is that it takes a very long time to cure, hence addition of compounds to speed the drying in many commercial products. Can you comment on your experience with the Corey's blend on curing time? Not fair to compare it to Danish oil, but perhaps plain pure tung oil, walnut oil, or BLO. Thanks.

Dean,

That's a good question! There's surface dry, and there's cured, as in polymerized. I think walnut oil is surface dry faster. Compared to pure Danish oil...so much faster. And it's been years since I've used pure tung oil, but Corey's blend is way faster.

To add to the confusion...my bowl drying shack is unheated, and my house where I've been drying some bowls is heated with wood, so the temperature ranges from low 70s for a number of hours down to the 50s by morning. But I can say that the blend is surface dry in a few hours when friction buffed on the lathe. Applied off the lathe and wiped as dry as reasonable with a cloth, surface dry in 24 hours—though this is a much light coat that putting on wet and friction buffing on the lathe.

I'll keep posted.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have been using Polymerized Tung Oil for years as my go to finish, rather than the pure Tung Oil, not because Tung oil takes long to polymerize, it is still faster than BLO and by a long time to Walnut oil.

But PTO (Polymerized Tung Oil) gets harder and smoother than pure Tung Oil, and yes cures faster than pure Tung oil, as it will cure in about 8 hours with the right conditions, I normally wait to the next day for the next coat, where 1 or 2 coats will be all you need for a good finish, adding another one for open grain wood.

Sutherland Welles Co. the maker of Tung Oil and Polymerized Tung Oil, and resold by others has this info.



The difference between Pure Tung Oil and Polymerized Tung Oil

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

I’m interested to see how your experimentation works out - been in the market for a new bowl finish for a while now. I just used Osmo Top Oil for the first time yesterday - second coat went on today.

Plant based oil, it is food safe according to the label. It is remarkable in that it doesn’t darken the wood’s natural color when it dries, feels great to the hand, and has the soft satin sheen I prefer. So far, it’s the best thing I’ve used. If it lives up to its billing as being long-lived, it looks like a great option to petro chem-based options.

Jeff,

You're so close to Corey, maybe you should go visit. He's outside of Anacortes and would welcome you. He's such an unconventional woodworker, in the best sense. His skin kayaks and umiaks are a sight to behold and paddle. Corey is very connected to the best of traditional boat building technology while using new materials . He's been using the oil for 20+ years and could show you some of his bowls that have been in use for years.

Let us know if you visit!

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

I have been using Polymerized Tung Oil for years as my go to finish, rather than the pure Tung Oil, not because Tung oil takes long to polymerize, it is still faster than BLO and by a long time to Walnut oil.

Thanks for the post Leo! Very imformative. If I understand it correctly, Corey's tung oil is heated, and thus polymerized. Interesting terminology...what they are calling pure tung oil, I would call raw. I only meant pure as to say no chemical/thinners/additives.

Corey calls his finish semi-matte. I find it more glossy than walnut by far, and a bit glossier than Danish. But not a true gloss.

I'm pretty much sold on tung oil, but it's a bit early for me to rave too much!

EDIT: I took a look at the Sutherland Wells formula. The DiCitrusol, sounds to me like a trade name for d-limonene. For what it's worth, Corey's oil is roughly half the price, and I saw he ships to Canada at no additional cost. I think he runs across the border on a regular basis.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks for the post Leo! Very imformative. If I understand it correctly, Corey's tung oil is heated, and thus polymerized. Interesting terminology...what they are calling pure tung oil, I would call raw. I only meant pure as to say no chemical/thinners/additives.

Corey calls his finish semi-matte. I find it more glossy than walnut by far, and a bit glossier than Danish. But not a true gloss.

I'm pretty much sold on tung oil, but it's a bit early for me to rave too much!

EDIT: I took a look at the Sutherland Wells formula. The DiCitrusol, sounds to me like a trade name for d-limonene. For what it's worth, Corey's oil is roughly half the price, and I saw he ships to Canada at no additional cost. I think he runs across the border on a regular basis.

Zach, pure as used in the Pure Tung Oil is just that, no additives, with Polymerized Tung Oil you do need a thinner, for the simple reason that the oil through the heating process becomes TOO thick to be used like that, so that is where the thinners come in, of course these will evaporate, and then you have the Pure Polymerized Tung Oil left over on/in the wood.

As for Walnut oil, it does polymerize also, but very slowly unless you add driers to speed up the polymerization, if thinners are added for penetration, these have to evaporate also.
But even when the oil is eventually polymerized, it is barely harder than a hard wax, really borderline calling it a hard finish,
As for Walnut oil being food safe, it is when it is totally polymerized and that takes weeks, before that time the hazard for those that have problems with Peanut and Walnut and other nuts and oils is still there.

 

[JeffSmith]

Jeff,

You're so close to Corey, maybe you should go visit. He's outside of Anacortes and would welcome you. He's such an unconventional woodworker, in the best sense. His skin kayaks and umiaks are a sight to behold and paddle. Corey is very connected to the best of traditional boat building technology while using new materials . He's been using the oil for 20+ years and could show you some of his bowls that have been in use for years.

Let us know if you visit!

Sounds like a good day trip - don’t go off-island too much, but Anacortes is only about an hour away...

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks for the post Leo! Very imformative. If I understand it correctly, Corey's tung oil is heated, and thus polymerized. Interesting terminology...what they are calling pure tung oil, I would call raw. I only meant pure as to say no chemical/thinners/additives.

Corey calls his finish semi-matte. I find it more glossy than walnut by far, and a bit glossier than Danish. But not a true gloss.

I'm pretty much sold on tung oil, but it's a bit early for me to rave too much!

EDIT: I took a look at the Sutherland Wells formula. The DiCitrusol, sounds to me like a trade name for d-limonene. For what it's worth, Corey's oil is roughly half the price, and I saw he ships to Canada at no additional cost. I think he runs across the border on a regular basis.

Hi Zach, I was going over this again, and have this question, did you actually use the heat treated Tung oil (polymerized and thickened by this process) ??

I understood from a couple of sources that Polymerized Tung Oil was too thick to easily use (wipe onto a turning) and so these makers do use a thinner to improve on that.

The PTO I use, I get from Lee Valley, it has been thinned, the finish I get from this I would call shiny or as you call it glossy, especially if I add a couple 2 coats over the first one.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Hi Zach, I was going over this again, and have this question, did you actually use the heat treated Tung oil (polymerized and thickened by this process) ??

I understood from a couple of sources that Polymerized Tung Oil was too thick to easily use (wipe onto a turning) and so these makers do use a thinner to improve on that.

The PTO I use, I get from Lee Valley, it has been thinned, the finish I get from this I would call shiny or as you call it glossy, especially if I add a couple 2 coats over the first one.

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First of all...great work. The finish is perfect. You're inadvertently shaming me into applying more coats!

The answer is yes: Corey's PTO is heated treated. His website says to 500 F. Since it's thinner roughly 30% with d-limonene, I really don't know how thick his 100% PTO works out to be. My impression—which could be wrong—is that his PTO is fairly thin.

My understanding is that many furniture folks and others reduce the thinner in the PTO as they apply successive coats. I asked Corey about this and he said something to the effect of: well, you could, but there's really no reason to.

I just wish I started using this PTO blend a few years ago and I'd already know a heck of a lot about it!

Thanks for the conversation.

 

[BobCoates]

Zach,
Just order some of Corey's oil, we talked for awhile on phone, seems like great person. Interested in trying it on a mahogany bowl that I am working on.,

Bob

 

[Marc Sitkin]

A friend of mine from the local woodworkers club gave me some to try on my wood turnings. Just put the first coat on last night, onto a large honey locust bowl. Nice product to use, no heavy petrochemical odor, just a light citrus smell. Wood looks great. Not quite dry enough for a second coat yet after 18 hrs, but it's a bit cool and damp here. Will probably do another coat or two. Anyone tried to apply while wet sanding off the lathe?

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

A friend of mine from the local woodworkers club gave me some to try on my wood turnings. Just put the first coat on last night, onto a large honey locust bowl. Nice product to use, no heavy petrochemical odor, just a light citrus smell. Wood looks great. Not quite dry enough for a second coat yet after 18 hrs, but it's a bit cool and damp here. Will probably do another coat or two. Anyone tried to apply while wet sanding off the lathe?

Glad you're liked the oil Marc. To answer your question, I've done a bit of wet sanding, both on the lathe and off. I personally don't like plugging the pores of the wood with the fine sanding dust. I think the finish looks better when sanded normally, then oil applied on the lathe with some friction to get it to go deeper, then multiple coats without sandpaper. To my eye the finish is cleaner and brighter. But still a good finish.

On the other hand, my one local woodturning friend loves wet sanding tung oil. He's been doing it for 30+ years in flat work and says the finish is bombproof. He's a stickler for shiny finish, and I've seen some of his older flat woodwork, and it's held up well.