These are the three products suggested in the 1976 article for making an oil/varnish blend.
A former student of mine from 10 years ago emailed me with a question about what he remembered was a formula I had come up with for a wipe-on finish. He looked through his notes, but couldn’t find any.
He was probably referring to the tests I had performed to adjust oil/varnish mixtures such as Watco Danish Oil. I hadn’t come up with my own formula. When I wanted to use this finish, I have stayed pretty consistent with Watco.
I tested higher ratios varnish-to oil with higher ratios oil-to–varnish. And what I came up with was pretty much what you would expect. Higher gloss levels were achieved with higher amounts of varnish, while lower gloss was obtained with higher amounts of linseed oils. But the differences werent very much, so I never switched to one of these formulas over Watco.
Let me explain a bit more. The varnish is added to the mix to increase the durability of the finish, i.e., to resist moisture penetration and scratches. The oil is added to the mix to make it easier to apply the finish by allowing for more time to set up.
Watco was introduced into the woodworking community way back in the mid-1970s (Spring of 1976) in the second issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. This finish was not readily available at the time, so the article’s author showed us how to make it. His recipe consisted of one part boiled oil, two parts gloss varnish, and three parts turpentine.
I just went back and reread the article to refresh my memory and found several interesting points. Remember that the woodworkers’ knowledge of finishes was very primitive back then, compared to today. Just interesting in retrospect.
Were supposed to use pure, boiled linseed oil with no driers or other additives. By adding driers, boiled Linseed Oil is different from raw Linseed Oil. Raw linseed oil with no driers takes weeks or longer to dry. The misunderstanding here is probably due to the use of the word boiled, which is, or was, widely interpreted to mean actually boiled!
It was also interesting to note that turpentine can be used. It is stated in the article that you should not use any substitutes or mineral spirits. There is no reason that I can see to not use mineral spirits. But I remember that there used to be more confusion about this. Turpentine was often thought to be better, even though it evaporates just as mineral spirits does, so it has no impact on the resulting dried finish.
The author does give good instructions for application, though, in contrast to the Watco brand itself. After letting the finish dry for a while, apply one coat per day for three days. Watco told us (and continues to instruct me, which I find amazing) that you should apply the second coat within 45 minutes of wiping off your first coat. Because of the length of time it takes for this finish to dry, this second coat adds nothing. It just mixes with the first, so you are really applying just one coat. And this doesnt yield good results.
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