BLO/Poly blend over poly, OK?

[Rick Schubert]

I have a bunchof white pine trim that I'm going to be installing. It has 3 coats of polyurethane thinned with MS that I've wiped on. I'm thinking about putting another coat of half BLO and half poly on to help it darken to a honey color faster.

Does this sound OK as long as I sand lightly with 220 paper first?

Thanks, Rick

[Steve Schoene]

No, it's not a good idea. A mix of oil and varnish dries very soft. That's why oils or oil/varnish mixes are only appropriate over unsealed wood where the mix is applied, allowed to penetrate for a bit, and then wiped off so that the material doesn't remain on the surface.

[Howard Acheson]

As Steve said, an oil/varnish mixture only is applied to virgin or bare wood.

However, the oil based poly you applied will darken as fast as the mixture you wanted to apply unless you used an "exterior" poly varnish. Poly varnish is almost always made with linseed oil as its drying oil component. It yellows as fast as pure linseed oil.