Soon I'm going to finish the bed wood. I'm going to oil it instead of varnishing so it can be used and repaired. What is the best oil to use? I have found teak oil and some Aussie deck seal from cabot, Haven't found any tung oil yet, but I'm still looking. Any of you wood craftsmen have any reccommendations? The truck will be in Florida, land of the 4 o"clock rain shower and bright sun.
That, and I think Lowe's carries Homer Formby's furniture refinish line which has tung oil. Flashlight
Tung Oil! Tung Oil will last forever but you want to rub it in before assembly (both sides) & soak the ends good. Apply many times. Or you can rub in polyurethane with a nice clean rag. Rember the tung oily rag may self combust, safer to just burn it when finished. The polyurethane will probably do what you want in two applications. Sorta like rubbing in a glaze wax.
Russ, Do you have a Woodcraft store close by? I do a lot of woodworking and their Tung Oil is the best. It is pure tung. Formby's has only a small percentage of real tung oil. Woodcraft has it on their website. It's not cheap, but it last forever and continues to harden with age. You can always add more on if you get a scratch and it will never show laps. I was going to say Tung Earle, but that sounds so wrong. Greg
Linseed oil Russ - I've read that boiled linseed oil also is good, if you can find that. I ended up using teak oil with some black ebony stain mixed together. It made a harder surface than I expected, but will be easy to touch up.
Don't forget... There's also deck stain or Thompson's water sealer. The stains come in colors and protect the wood, Thompson's can just be periodically mopped on.
consider the UV's Russ, Navigate over to the Mar-K website here: http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finishing.html. You will find a fairly comprehensive wood finish comparison, none of the products are sold by mar-K, so there does not appear to be a conflict of interest. The problem with just linseed, or saturating with some other oil is there are no ultraviolet inhibitors to prevent mother nature from turning your new wood into grey sawdust over time.
Another idea might be to mix you own "special" oil. What I do is mix my own, this way it is a little like both an oil wipe and a little like a polyurethane. I take: 5 parts of tung oil 3 parts turpine 2 parts marine polyurethane. This mixture allows me to wipe with a rag and let it sit wet for 10-15 minutes. then buff dry with a rag , next day do again ,you can do this as many time as you want. This mixture is like an oil in that you can apply with a rag in a dusty shop,but when you buff dry, the dust from the shop will not stick to the finish. With the poly added you get more protection than just oil, but the added durability won't peal like a polyurethane. Another note of just using tung or linseed oil. Tung oil in time will dry hard, linseed oil never quite dryes(always a little soft). Linseed oil can also mold, living in N.C. I would never use it on somthing in north carolina!! Repairs are simple rub with steel wool and wipe on more mix. Herman
Woodbed impregnant ? Depends on what kind of wood you have used and wich expectations you have to the outlook of the wood patern ? Oil treatment gives a long lasting effect but you have to repeat the treatment more often then when using varnish. Variated weather conditions gives shrinkage and expansion cracks in the wood. Beware impregnation is most important at the end of the plank because there is where rotting begins , set the boards vertically on both sides in a rich mixture and let the wood draw well in for some hours or so. I suggest that you treat the wood 3 times on top/bottom sides before mounting the boards in your pickup. Between each treatment let the oil draw in a few hours . It will be easyer to wipe excess oil off the third time as it does not penetrates so much as the first time. Do not mix with synthetic oil compounds , as it starts a chemical prosessing with cooked lindseed oil and shortens the life of the wood and stained it after a while (becomes grey). If you want to make the boards darker nevertheless some biological tar is posseble to mix after the third treatment. Tar oil closes the wooden board serface and preserve it from rain coming in. My wooden boat has remained well kept with this recipe for over 50 years. 50% turpentine and 50% cooked linseed oil + 1 % biologicall taroil gives amazing results and it is sheep in use. Good luck Martinius , land of the Vikings.
Just plain ol' diesel both sides and on the end cuts and then a yearly spay out of the handy weed sprayer works if the truch with bed are to be for work.
Or ; You can do like us old Yankee farmers and toss a slab of plywood over the rotted original 60 year old wood after you fall through again BTW : Tong Oil is really good stuff ! . I coated one side of a sheet 10 years ago , it's still leaning against the fence awaiting me to coat the other side and yes , the Tong coated side is not rotted / soft .
The wood is oak, and the truck is going to florida, may end up in Wyoming at the ranch. It isn't going to be a work truck, but he doesn't want to be afraid to use it either. I'm going up to our Woodcraft store soon, I may be looking at the tung/terp. mix.
Went to Woodcraft...Holy crap they have some cool stuff there. They reccomended 100%tung, first thinned 50/50 with tuprentine, then straight. Finish up with a product called waterlox. http://www.waterlox.com Now if I had wood that fit.......
Herman's Recipe! Herman Quail has a good recipe. The best of both, tung oil and poly. MinWax Helmsman has UV protection. I have used it many times on nice wood front doors. Many people want their doors to be nice like their neighbors, never mind that their neighbors door faces north and theirs faces south without enough front porch to protect it. Its a real heart break after they spend several $K on it and it looks bad in a year or two. Tung oil will last longer than the truck and the poly will help UV and get through quicker. The tar Martinus suggested will provide extra color but I have not seen it for sale. Boats stay wet all the time. I believe that Martinus and Herman have done this before. We are all old enough to know it works a Loooong time.
Nate I like the way u think. This is what I did. Put a piece of plywood on there and painted it black. Both sides!!! It's fancy I know
