Thread: A comparison of three "Tung" Oils

Thanks for this valuable info, Rob. Where does the Feast Waston China Wood oil fit into the picture?

Hi Jill,

In this experiment, it was as good as the Pure Tung Oil and the Hard Burnishing Oil and maybe a little better than the Wattyl. The burnishing gives it more lustre than I have seen previously. I'd be very happy to use it in place of the Wattyl.

Here's a comparison of (1) China Wood, (2) Wattyl Teak and (3) Liberon Pure Tung Oil.
One thing about the China Wood and the Liberon. Both are names for Tung Oil, just depends on where the nuts were collected. China or South America.
Out of the can, the Liberon was very thick. Liberon suggest diluting up to 50% with White Spirit (White Oil I think) I suspect that the China Wood has already been diluted. At some stage in the very near future (today or tomorrow) I will try doing double dilutions of the Liberon down to 50%, 25% and 12.5% oil with White Spirit and see what happens. If, as I suspect, the oil will happily still present great resolution at 50%. a 500ml can will effectively cost you $17.50!!! And last twice as long as other Oils. Excellent! If it works at 25% even better!!

Regards,

Rob

So...here's the doubling dilutions trial of the Liberon Pure Tung Oil.
Pic 1 100% Tung Oil
Pic 2 50% Tung Oil and 50% White Spirits (Dry Cleaning Fluid)
Pic 3 25% Tung Oil and 75% White Spirits.
I guess I should have run a negative control of White Spirit only....but I didn't!

I'd like others to let me know where they think they'd aim to use the Oil. Pure 50% or 25% dilution. I would opt for the 50% and perhaps the 25% with a longer incubation time. (Incubation was for 25 minutes)
BTW: The raw board was sanded dry to 400, then wet after addition of the oil or oil mix with 400, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000 and 4000 grit. You could stop anywhere in between 400 and 4000 and still get an adequate result.

Regards,

Rob

Actually Rob, from the photos and my PC monitor, they all look much the same to me, although the 25% oil is a bit paler in places

Point taken, Jill.

Excellent.

Regards,

Rob

Hi LGS, White Spirit is Merican for Mineral Turps not White Oil. Great comparisons, might have to have a play myself

Hi CH,
Mineral Spirit is 'mericain for mineral Turps.
White Spirits is Dry Cleaning Fluid I found out yesterday! Who knew!!

Today I'm going to try out some liquid and some heat on the various oiled segments of the RG board. If they can stand the stress as well as the Hard Burnishing Oil, then we're all in fat city. No need for Poly anymore!
Great Oil finish with poly durability and the bonus of not having to strip back a table top when it gets a small scratch.

Regards,

Rob

Rob, who makes the Hard Burnishing Oil? Organoil? And where do you get it from?

I thought it was meant for wood turners, with the heat of the burnishing making it go right inot the timber.

How would it go for boxes and frames etc?

Keep up the great work you are doing, it is very educational, and clears up a lot of misconceptions

Hi Jill,

Organoil make Hard Burnishing Oil (HBO).
You can get it from Carbatec for about $37.00/litre or $25.00/500ml. You can also get it at Masters for about $35.00/litre.

HBO is designed for friction sealing, that is, heat from a source is used to burnish the oil into the wood and providing resistance to heat and liquids. The source of heat can be either the heat of friction provided by a Lathe or in the case of us impurists, a Random Orbital Sander. The friction caused by the rubbing action of the sander is sufficient for achieving the burnished result. Organoil recommend using grits up to 1500/2000. I use 4000 just because I can.
You can buy these very high (2000 and 4000) pads from Festool. They have no holes and are synthetic pads. If you have a 150mm ROS, they will fit.
As for the finish on boxes and the like,

Here's some examples,

Regards,

Rob

Well...I've run the tests on the various Oils (all straight from the can) using the following regimes.
1. Cold water dripped onto the oiled timber and left for 10 minutes.(Pic 1)
2. Newly boiled water poured onto the oiled timber and left for 5 minutes. (Pic 3)
3. A boiling pot of water laid flat on the oiled timber (Radiant Heat) and left for 5 minutes (Pic 4)
4. Two different readily available kitchen bench cleaning agents. (Pic 5)

While I have recorded all tests and results as images and tabulations, I can sum up as follows.

None of the oils showed any damage or scarring as a result of any of the irritants used. Some of the oils were easier to remove evidence of the cold or hot water, but generally, all came up as they were before the tests with a little rubbing with a cotton cloth. All were fine after using the Kitchen cleaners on them.
So hard burnishing all of the Tung Oil/Tung Oil hybrids was successful.

Choose your weapon! Just make sure that there is no Poly in the mix.

Regards,

Rob

I'd like to take issue with a couple of points.

"Danish Oil" is a rather vague term and generally means a mixture of varnish (usually polly these days) and some sort of oil or oil blend.

While some would argue that it should be tung......it realy could be anything.

There are various "Tung Oil" products on the market very few are "pure" tung oil.
At the very least many of the have added metalic driers, trebine or such to make them go off in less than a month.
Other products typically labled as " tung oil finishes" or similar contain some sort of resin or varnish component, and could be a blend of all sorts of stuff.

If we are being fussy we realy need to know at least approximately what is in the finish and we can not rely on the name on the container or some other preconception or assertion.

As for white spirit, it is indded clean white hydrocarbon, and is very similar to turps but is cleaner whiter and does not contain the oily component.

White spirit is the hydrocarbon base on which many solvents are built, you will find it or similar components in turps, shellite, various thinners and it is more or less the base for petrol

As for it being dry cleaning fluid as actually used by dry cleaners now.....I have significant doubts about that.

I prefeer white spirit for thinning clear finishes to turps, because of the lack of the oily component, it does not seem to make things go milky as much as turps and it dries a little faster.

If you want a clean white relativly simple hydrocarbon that evaporates cleanly, and does not taint or alter your finish, white spirit is it.

Not to be confused with meholated spirit ( which is ethyl alcahol, ethanol),

OR

white parifin oil, which is a thicker oilier fraction of the refining process and is more or less baby oil, and can be had in a food safe grade & is the best thing for finishing cutting boards & such.
Parifin oil does not polimerise or go rancid.

cheers

What an amazing result! Thanks for taking the time to do this, Rob, and for posting the results.

I think you will start seeing a swing to oil finishes before long

Hi Soundman,

The purpose of this exercise was to take three products which should be Tung Oil or a hybrid of Tung Oil and other "goodies" and to assess their suitability for hard burnishing into timber.
China Oil is supposedly Pure Tung Oil, since the two names are interchangeable. Teak Oil is also a Tung Oil "hybrid" product and Liberon Pure Tung Oil should be just that.
Regardless of the true makeup of these oils, they all gave similar results in so far as definition of grain, ease of use and durability as defined by heat and liquid tolerance tests and the ability to cope with standard kitchen cleaning sprays.

The use of White Spirit was recommended for dilution by Liberon. That is why it was used. The ability to dilute the pure oil down by 50% and 75% is a bonus and that's all. On the label, it is clearly labelled White Spirit and Dry Cleaning Fluid.

Regards,

Rob

LGS

So would you suggest this finish for a floor? I was concerned that in may be a bit over slippery if it were dusty or if you had wet feet. The nudie run from the bathroom may end in a nasty bruise