What kind of oil do you use for your blades?

[Interested Party]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

For dry, damaged hide/leather or wood, like on hilts and scabbards, i find that linseed oil has an amazing way of re-lusturizing (is that even a word- ) the finish. Also works great on old gun stocks...
Anyone else try this product??

Do you use boiled or raw linseed on the leather? To my understanding boiled has lead added to it as a drying agent and it seemed to have a long term negative effect on leather. I do like the boiled on wood as it doesn't gum due to the drying agent and you can use a finer abrasive.

Growing up in my grandfather's old school gun shop we used Rig on everything metal, but we dealt in European and American knives and fire arms. It did just fine on Damascus shotgun barrels and preserved case hardening colors nicely. That said I have been told that it would damage the temper lines on Japanese blades. I think the gentleman who told me that said he used magnolia oil. I live in the desert now and don't have to worry that much about rust. My preservation problem now is splitting wood.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Interested Party

Do you use boiled or raw linseed on the leather? To my understanding boiled has lead added to it as a drying agent and it seemed to have a long term negative effect on leather. I do like the boiled on wood as it doesn't gum due to the drying agent and you can use a finer abrasive.

Linseed is the old standby for wood, not leather. For the latter, mink oil is highly recommended and I’ve followed that. advice for years with excellent results. It has a soft waxy texture not liquid.

Like you the presence of lead in boiled linseed oil is of some concern. If you cut raw linseed with gum turpentine that will help with absorption and drying. If you end up with a semi tacky film you can vigorously wipe with a piece of burlap to make a nice sheen that dries hard. Or you can later finish with your favorite wax.

[A. G. Maisey]

Boiled linseed dries more quickly, true, but raw oil seems to be a better filler, a lot slower to dry, sometimes finishes up a bit tacky --- which is not really a problem --- but the finished job, and I'm talking two years, not two weeks, looks pretty much the same. When I say that "tacky" is not a problem, I mean it can be easily fixed, it is not something that you need to live with.

The mildew problem is a characteristic of linseed finished wood. Yes, overall damp conditions certainly do generate mildew, but in premises which are not subject to a moist environment, a poorly maintained linseed finished gunstock can still produce mildew. I used to know of a lot of recipes for a hand-rubbed oil finish, and they can contain tung oil, mineral turps, gum turps, vinegar --- and other stuff I've forgotten. The preparation stage can get a bit mystical for some people. I've known people to use stuff like egg-white in the prep stage, and a lot of people swear by lemon juice and isopropyl alcohol in the prep, rather than steam whiskering.

The main thing with a hand rubbed oil finish is the way it is done, thorough preparation, warm wood, warm oil, tiny quantities of oil, completely dry between coats, rub back with 0000 steel wool between coats, spread the job over months, not days, buff the finish, wax over the oil finish. Some people prefer to use a cloth or hessian pad, others prefer no pad, others just use bare hand, you can generate more heat with a pad, and heat helps both drying and penetration.

I did a lot of stock work in my late teens and twenties, and have continued with spasmodic bouts of playing with firearm wood since then. I was taught how to do a hand rubbed finish by somebody who had a very solid background in this art, using boiled oil, what I was told was " a coat a day for a week, a coat a week for a month, a coat a month for a year, a coat a year forever" . I don't know that we can take that literally, but it is certainly the idea behind a decent hand rubbed finish. The thing with any oil finish is that it penetrates the wood, it doesn't sit on top of the wood like shellac, it goes into the wood and bonds with it, this means that if you have dings and dents in your stock it is a whole lot easier to get them out and bring the finish back than it ever is with something that just sits on top of the wood.

Oil finishes are never just a matter of slapping a bit of oil onto something, it is an art, and there are a number of ways to do the job. About 20 years ago there was a good article on oil finishing in one of the gun journals, I forget which one, but it was most likely Gun Digest because that's the only one I regularly buy.

[kronckew]

You CAN get proper BLO without the poisonous drying additives if you look hard enough. You can even buy edible flax seed oil (Flax oil IS another name for Linseed oil) from health food stores and boil it yourself, tho that may get interesting if it overheats, I bought some for use on wooden clubs from my local Hardware store. They happened to also be the local undertaker and coffin makers.

"A coat a day for a week, a coat a week for a month, a coat a month for a year, a coat a year forever" is also what I was taught many moons ago. works for me. After the first annual reoil, I turn 'forever' into 'as needed'.

They were/are quite traditional and preferred that for their hand rubbed coffin finishes. the tin specifically says there are no additives. It does take a LOT longer to polymerise and 'dry' without the additives.

In the late 19c Germany held a contest with a cash prize for anyone who could develop an all-purpose non-toxic gun lube and rust preventative. A gentleman won with his mineral oil based stuff, it could be used on wood stocks and does not dry out or harden or get tacky or sticky, it removes leading and copper fouling from the barrel rifling, lubricated the rifle moving parts, and prevented rust better than all the other entrants. It was non-toxic, and could also be used to lube moving parts on food prep machinery. It was found that it also was anti-septic and could be used to disinfect wounds and cuts, was anti-fungal as well, and could even be taken internally for a variety of illnesses (you can still buy a medical grade of it which is a bit purer, or a food grade version for fool machinery.) It's anise fragranced as anise oil is part of the formulae, some people like it, others do not. The Name of this miracle stuff is - Ballistol. It also doe not degenerate or break down over time, A tin of it can be left open for years and will be just as good as when made. Might get a few bugs in it tho, they can be strained out . Like anise flavoured Greek ouzo, it can be mixed with water, and turns a similar white cloudy look. tastes a bit like it too, but is not alcoholic.

For some reason I have not yet found the formulation sold in America has a slightly different formulation than the original still sold in Europe and the UK. Not sure what the difference is. Also useful for softening ear wax (Earwax is not recommended for use on wood or ferric metals )

[midelburgo]

I use arms grease. Antios or Armistol. It is there a year later.
Armistol has a nice kit with a dressing for wood.

I want to try lithium grease with some irrelevant blades.