Rustins danish oil stinks

[Kuffy]

How long will the smell of Rustin's danish oil linger? I find the smell to be rather disgusting.

and...if i was to use rustys danish oil on the inside of some boxes, will the smell linger for ever n ever? if so ill just give the boxes a shellacking instead, or perhaps watco danish oil.

Thanx

[Kuffy]

well the answer to my own question presented itself to me driving home along a highway. A garbage truck pulled out in front of me, and the truck was rather smelly. Its the same exact smell coming off the Rustins Danish Oil. So i'm guessing the danish oil has gone bad. I haven't used this stuff in the past and have no idea what it should look or smell like when new. mine smells like solvent out of the can, but after the solvent goes away it smells like dirty rotten garbage. It also has a greenish/brown cloudy colour. Should it be a translucent brown colour?

Now, what to do with the products that i have applied this danish oil to? Is there something that i can wash it with, ideally without raising the grain. or is there something compatible with rustins danish oil that i can do an overcoat to lock in the smell? Its a bit of a pity, because the products do have quite a nice finish at the moment...such is life

Thanx

[LGS]

Hi Kuffy,

Most finishing oils are clear, so I suggest your diagnosis might be right. As far as going over the oil, it probably will help a bit. I really think a sand back to get most of the oil off, then redo with a less smelly alternative. Liberon,Organoil and Wattyl make some good oils, but I suggest you open the lid and give them a smell before buying anything!!

Regards,

Rob

[Kuffy]

Thanks Rob.

I want to avoid re-sanding anything because at the moment they have been beautifully sanded up to old 800grit using a ROS before assembly. To sand now would mean having to hand sand given the multitude of internal corners and angles. try as i may, it will just leave scratch marks everywhere. I have a few dribbles leftover of watco danish oil, ill apply that to the bottom of one of the serving trays i am making and see if that removes or masks the odour.

Out of curiosity, how would i be able to determine if there is any compatibility issues between Rustins and Watco danish oils? Im not expecting anything to lift or bubble like a film finish would.

[LGS]

Hi Kuffy,

I guess you could try mixing equal volumes of each and see whether there are any problems with the mixture such as a line where the two oils meet or globules of one oil swimming around in the other. if so, then you have problems. Note that this may not be reflected in the way they react when one is dry and the other applied. Can you try putting the Watco oil onto the Tung oil somewhere off the top or visible surfaces of the item. This would at least indicate the miscibility of the two.
I don't know what you are like with the smell of Citrus, but maybe some Terpene over the top. If the oil was dissolved in an organic liquid (most likely) the Terpene should make little difference to the finish, but will certainly rid you of the smell.

Have a look here, it might be useful.

Regards,

Rob

[soundman]

If you have oil bassed finish product that has " gone off" ya stuck between a rock and a hard place .

If the product has gone off, all the metalic driers will be spent and the flm will fail to cure properly ...... even if the finish seems to sort of cure in the short term you can not trust on it being reliable long term. ...... remember if it smells like rubbish, the oils have at least partly gone rancid so they will not polimerise properly even if more chemical driers are added

I'd say you have very little choice but to scrub the finish off ....... I'd be looking at solvent first ..... probably turps or white spirit and see how much comes off .... you may have to mover to a more agressive solvent like acetone or thinners........ if it is a poly based product and solvent is bringing it off, you can be guaranteed that is has not cured properly.

Other than that you need to look at this as a restoration project and use the same stripping techniques

as for this whole 800 gritt thing ....... some people just don't want to hear about oversanding ...... most film forming finishes sanding past 320 is pretty much pointless .......if ya doig a rubbed oil finish you may want to sand to higher grits.

cheers

[Kuffy]

Rob, thats a good idea about mixing equal parts in a clear glass to see if the two products separate. I might try citrus terpene, it certainly removes the turps smell from my hands very good.

I have applied the watco danish oil to the bottom of one of the serving trays. It is mostly dry now, and it seems to have done the job nicely. I had forgotten just how overpowering the odour of the watco product is, and i know that it will linger for a couple of weeks which is fine for my timeline.

Soundman, I haven't built a film finish with the danish oil. I never had any plans of trying to build a film finish with it. I have sanded to old 800grit because that will be the finish sheen level of the product. If i wanted to build a film i would have used something like a wiping varnish such as Minwax Antique Oil or Hard Shellac. The rags that i used to apply the finish did dry to become stiff similar to just about any other varnish I have used in the past so i do believe that the finish is properly curing, just a bit smelly. I did try to remove the finish 24hrs after using turps on a test piece. None of it came off and the smell remained.

[Kuffy]

well i tried using watco danish oil over the existing smelly rustins danish oil and that worked at the start, but after a day the rancid smell returned. So then i tried some Citrus solvent (dipentene, not di'lemonene). That also kinda worked but it seems the citrus smell is just masking the rancid smell.

So then i have sanded one of the serving trays back a bit using 400grit and then final 800grit and left it out in the direct sun for a about an hour. still no luck.

so after googling a bunch of querys, i decided to try white vinegar, straight. not cut down with water or anything. just a quick light wipe with a slightly damp cloth. It worked! removed the rancid smell immediately.

the only question that remains is "will white vinegar affect top coats of danish oil in a negative way at all?"

[Kuffy]

All done, all finished, all shiny, none smelly. Woohoo!!!

allnine.jpg

Thanks guys.

[artme]

A timely post for me!!

I am just about ready to finish off a chest of drawers I have made.
Bought some Feast and Watson Scandanavian oil. I tried it on an
offcut and it seems ok, just a little light in the colour stakes.

I could buy FW product to darken it a tad but only in 1ltr. amounts.
Not worth it as I would need 2 separate products.

I have been using Ocedar on the furniture in the house just to keep it in good nick

I like the stuphph but I don't think it can be used as a finish.