danish oil not drying on red oak

[Chris Henke]

I finished a bench using Watco danish oil (walnut finish) last week---was my first time using this product. I followed the directions, and the bench was definitely not dry after the 8 hours advertised on the can. I spent the next few days wiping small dots of finish off the top of the bench that had seeped up.

Yesterday (about 5 days after applying the finish) I thought the bench was dry. I took a clean cloth a wiped all over the bench, and did not see anything on the cloth. Bench also felt dry to the touch. I brought the bench upstairs for my wife and daughter to use at the piano---they each had light-colored pants on, and they had blotches of stain all over their backsides after they had sat for a short time! KEEEEERAP!!

Now I'm not sure when I can trust this thing to be dry. I like the look of the finish, but how long do I need to keep this thing in the garage before it will be ready to go? The garage is generally damp, but I have been running a dehumidifier there, so it's fairly dry.

TIA for any ideas,

Chris

[jay case]

i have similar problems when staining red oak with any oil based stain. Red oak has a 1000s of tiny straw like hollows that you can see when looking at the end grain. You can sometimes blow air in the end and see it escape somewhere on the board. I think these straws capture the stain and leak it back out as it cures. As a result, when I stain red oak, i always after some time see what I call "measeling" where the stain has leaked out of the tubes either from the process of curing or temperature/expansion or whatever. Even if you continue to wipe right after applying to remove the measeling, it will always reappears quickly. It can sometime be so severe as to drip with gravity after exiting the straw holes.

What I have done to remove the measeling, is to let the stain cure overnight and then with a slightly stain dampened cloth, wipe the wood down again and this removes the measeling stain build up. I think at this point. the straw hollows are sealed which stops any further measeling leak out and the 2nd lite wipedown removes the build up that occured.

[glenn bradley]

As Jay said; I have continued to wipe off the "weeping" of oil on red oak for up to two weeks. I then left it for a week after I could get nothing else on a cloth rubbed HARD across the surface.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm sure this is not standard practice, but I was able to accellerate the bleeding / drying by leaving the piece in the sun for a couple hours. I wouldn't do that with a film forming finish, though; I've had varnish and shellac crack and blister when it gets too much sun/heat. But the danish oil seems to like it fine. You have to check it frequently though, or bring some elbow grease to remove bleedout.

[Howard Acheson]

Red oak has very deep pores. The Watco is primarily linseed oil and the linseed oil is quite slow drying particularly if thickly applied. It will bleed back for many hours.

When folks sat on it, it warmed up the wood and caused the oil to begin to bleed back again. In other words, the oil may have stopped bleeding back but the oil was not fully cured or polymerized. It can take 3-4 weeks for oil to become fully cured in red oak.

[Joe Cunningham]

I'm sure this is not standard practice, but I was able to accellerate the bleeding / drying by leaving the piece in the sun for a couple hours... You have to check it frequently though, or bring some elbow grease to remove bleedout.

Yeah make sure you check it frequently. Don't, you know, go on a motorcycle ride and come back a few hours later.

I did that recently ( ) with some cherry--I put pure tung oil on the night before. It bled out, then dried into sappy looking balls on the surface. Oh well, guess this cabinet door will be used in the shop rather than the bathroom.

[Chris Henke]

thanks for the replies, guys. I think I will try some sun drying tomorrow (weather permitting).

Chris