NON-SMELLy FINISHING OIL

[Stan Orsk]

I've been using Watco oils for decades. It does a wonderful job but I don't like the smell and it lasts a long time. Need suggestions for a non-smelly finishing oil. I'm using it on Cherry and hard Maple and I just want to woods' natural colors and grains to remain after finishing. Not worried about water or other liquids especially.

[Bill Jobe]

The smell of tung finish doesn't hang around long, particularly if you do several lite coats instead if heavy. I love it and it works great on cherry, a wood I turn a lot. I've never noticed a color shift.
To thin it I use odorless mineral spirits.

[Frederick Skelly]

Shellac is alcohol based and its smell disperses quickly.

[Kevin Jenness]

Sutherland Welles makes a line of tung oil based products using citrus solvent. I like their Hard Oil (tung/urethane blend) for interior woodwork.

[Stan Orsk]

I haven't worked with tung oil or shellac. How do you apply it and how many coats? Drying time?

[Roger Feeley]

Walnut oil. I did a bunch of work with Mahoney walnut oil and it didn't have much smell at all.

[glenn bradley]

I haven't worked with tung oil or shellac. How do you apply it and how many coats? Drying time?

We have folks on here who are better at this than I but, TungOil can take quite awhile to dry and the smell will vary with the additives. "Tung Oil Finish", so called, comes in a variety of flavors with various additives to speed drying or add resilience. Oil/poly blends offer a tough film finish.

Shellac can be applied by brush, pad or sprayed. I generally pad it on. Dries to touch in about 30 minutes. One or two very thin coats is usually adequate for the look you are after. Another thin coat or two can be used to get the "look" you are after or to leave enough film to rub out. I generally use two to four coats and can finish the same day. Some poo-poo shellac as the only finish on a piece but, many antiques are still looking good with their original finish in place.

[Sam Murdoch]

My favorite new finish is MonoCoat. Smells lovely . Not an oil smell comparable to any product of that nature - rather, a very pleasant fragrance - like baking cookies. Used with the catalyst it dries very fast - in a dust free environment a huge bonus. Though it is considered a 1 coat process I have recently finished 2 projects to which I applied as 2 thin coats.

NOW - it is extremely expensive BUT it goes a long way and can really be used as 1 coat. Defeating the purpose of the OP's question I have very successfully applied it over a 1st coat of WATCO in order to save it for the surface areas of my pieces that did not need the extra protection. The interior, for example, since it was open and visible to the outside I wanted to finish it with oil but did not want to waste the MONO COAT. I did the entire piece with WATCO sanded the Watco surfaces, outside and top in particular, to 600 grit, then applied the Mono Coat. What a spectacular hard and smooth finish. On smaller pieces I would not hesitate to use just the Mono Coat. Sand to 400 or 600 grit, apply the first coat, sand lightly with 600, apply the final coat.

This is one of the pieces - Alder with a birdseye maple top.


Muir-Batch-Cabinet copy.jpg Muir-Bath-Cabinet-End-view copy.jpg

[Andrew Joiner]

Google Thos. Moser. They use heated boiled linseed oil(BLO)on all there stuff. It's mostly cherry. I think some table tops and contract pieces get a different finish.

I've finished furniture with both hot BLO and Watco natural danish oil over the years. They both look about the same. However the Watco fumes bother me when applied and even years later on enclosed areas. No fume problem with BLO.

Lately I use home-brew wiping varnish on just about everything. I wear a respirator to apply it, but the fumes don't linger like danish oils.

[Mark Carlson]

I'm using Osmo Polyx oil on pretty much everything these days.

[Stan Calow]

my understanding was that danish oil like Watco was a blend of BLO, varnish, and solvents.