tung oil for butcher block
I have been using tung oil to finish furniture for
more than 25 years and have oiled wooden surfaces in my kitchen for that
long.
Pure tung oil is an excellent
finish to use, but you don't need to sand it between coats unless you didn't
take the step of raising the grain before you started. To do this, you dampen
the surface of the wood slightly. Then, once it dries, use fine sandpaper to
sand off any little fibres of wood that stand up. Repeat this until no more
fibres stand up.
Then dust it well,
preferably with a tack cloth before starting to use the tung oil. Use your hand,
a soft, lint free cloth or 000 steel wool to apply the tung oil. Sandpaper can
deteriorate with oil, so it is best not to use it for application. Leave the oil
on for about 15 minutes and then wipe off any excess. Let it dry thoroughly (1-2
days) between coats.
Put on at least 6
coats. When you feel that the wood is starting to look a bit dry or that the
surface looks less fresh than when you first oiled it, you can add more tung oil
to your well scrubbed counter without any other preparation.
You should coat the underside with at
least 3 coats. This helps to slow the migration of humidity in and out of the
wood. All end grain should get the full treatment whether exposed or
not.
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Tung
oil's renewable, food safe and has been used in marine applications in China
forever. ;-) You'll want pure tung oil which, unless you have a woodworker's
supply in town, you'll have to order
online.
As far as the tung oil, the
rule is that generally you apply it once a day for a week, once a week for a
month, once a month for a year and once a year thereafter.
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In
storing tung oil, decant it into smaller containers and, for any containers that
aren't filled to the top, drop marbles into the container to keep the surface as
close to the lid as possible. Then store it upside
down.
I later discovered IKEA's
Behandla oil, a mixture of tung oil and linseed oil. It's both easier to use and
much cheaper than the polymerized tung oil. I think we paid $130 for a gallon of
tung oil (that may include shipping), while Behandla is $5 for 750 ml. Unlike
the polymerized tung oil, it only needs to dry 2-4 hours between coats (12-24 to
cure), it washes off easily before it's cured, and it takes months to gel in the
can even without special precautions.
Posted: Sun - June 5, 2005 at 02:03 AM