Thread: Sticky Weapons
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Old 11-03-2004, 11:36 PM   #10
bkedelen
 
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Re: Sticky Weapons

I recommend using a bit of mineral spirits to clean off the excess oil and any varnish coating from the wood (sandpaper will clean it up as well, but sanding closes the wood's pores). The oil's power is to keep the inner wood moist, so having any extra on the outside of the wood does not really help you. Linseed oil never really dries, which is why it is great for preserving wood. Linseed also stinks of rotting deadfall (and turns American hickory and white oak a sickly yellow), so I just use tung oil, trying to avoid the mixtures with a varnish component. I also favor orange oils, but attempt to avoid the ones with a wax component, because wax closes the wood's pores as well. In the future, I recommend cutting your tung/linseed mixture with some mineral spirits (20% to 33% mineral spirits should do it). This will both help the oil absorption by reducing the formula's viscosity, and will help you wipe the outside of the weapon clean of the excess by making the mixture more volatile.
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