Linseed oil, raw v. boiled

[FergusM]

I must admit I have always been a bit confused as to which to use, raw or boiled linseed oil. Some books and articles are hardly helpful, when they tell you to use linseed oil, without specifying which. All is now clear, as I found an excellent website: www.birdbrand.co.uk. They are wholesalers of all sorts of traditional stuff, including both types of linseed oil, genuine turps, genuine creosote, black tar varnish and so on. They clearly explain the difference between raw and boiled oil, and when to use each. Basically, they recommend the raw oil for oak, and the boiled for other woods.

I was given an old douglas fir yard, that looked awful, with bits of old finish and the wood very dirty and dark. A belt sander, followed by an orbital, and a coat of boiled linseed oil (more to follow), and it is totally transformed. Sorry to sound like a tv ad, but there are few jobs aboard a boat more satisfying than to rescue a piece of tired looking timber.

 

[Guest]

Boiled is also used for some steels ....

Raw has too much moisture in it ....

If you mix up Linseed oil and tallow - an old fav for coating standing wires and bolt threads ... boiled .....

Thought you'd like to know ....

 

[Spuddy]

boiled does dry after a bit. Raw doesn't so muck sticks to it and the wood gets darker. Got to be careful with rags used with either - can get spontaneous combustion so either put them in a tin with a lid or spread them out so heat gets lost.

 

[reeac]

The boiling process causes the linseed oil partially to polymerize [ie. the molecules join up into longer chains] which makes it soak into the wood less and also dry to form a varnish-like surface coating.

 

[cass123]

Thought it was Linseed and white lead.

Used to be a favourite job for us apprentices in the 60's.

 

[Guest]

White lead ............

Sorry - you're right .... my memory of such wonderful things is getting hazy !!!!

Yep - I had the same luvly job as Deck Ape many moons ago !! The other luvly one - sliding down a derrick fall with a bucket of lub / grease mix and a handful of waste in a bosuns chair !!!

Oh those were the days !!!

 

[gandy]

I'd understood that the additives in Boiled make it poisonous. That doesn't seem to be indicated by this supplier. Anyone else heard that?

Tony S

 

[Guest]

Sticky taf-rails !!

Always remember the Taf-Rails in tropics with Linseed oil ... sticky and greasy .... where the oil never dried out and would eek out of the grain. Was very glad when varnish / micro-pore became order of day !!