# BLO and CA



## TonyL (Feb 6, 2015)

I know his is 6 years old, but I just tried it and like it. I didn't know BLO was something that came ready made; I thought you had to boil linseed oil yourself (Hey, I am from NYC..give me a break :biggrin. Thanks to a fellow member who told me that they sell it at Wal-mart.

Any way, this method required no wet sanding, no accelerator,  and only 6 coats. What am I missing? I just finished pen and love it.....but I have to missing something. Please all chime in. Thank you,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcgOf4siqc


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## dexter0606 (Feb 6, 2015)

I gave up on it years ago. I found that it yellowed the finish after awhile


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## JimB (Feb 6, 2015)

Good thing you didn't take linseed oil and boil it in an attempt to do it yourself. That would be extremely dangerous. 

I do CA/BLO finish as well as Poly and lacquer... it all depends on how i feel when it comes time to do the finish.


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## its_virgil (Feb 6, 2015)

Boiled linseed is not really boiled. Raw linseed oil takes a long time to dry and harden. Boiled linseed oil has additives that quickens the drying and curing. 

I have used boiled linseed oil and CA for over 10 yrs and have no problem with the finish. I've noticed no yellowing on any of my pens. 
Do a good turn daily!
Don


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## KenV (Feb 6, 2015)

I tend to use "Stand Oil" instead of boiled linseed oil and get the same results.   Stand oil is linseed oil that has been heated in absence of oxygen and is partially polymerized.

One version is sold as a gun stock finish.  Another source is "tried and true" finishes.

(I do not want any oils at my place that can start fires)

Never have found a problems, and the finish seems to be tough, not brittle


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## TonyL (Feb 6, 2015)

Thank you. Well, I liked the way it looks. I will try it some more. I wish I knew about the Stand oil - don't need anything else to catch fire. What I still don't understand is why someone can use CA this way and seem to have less work to do as opposed to a few coats of the both, no accelerator, and no sanding after 600.

Do you mix the BLO or Stand Oil with the CA like the pen turner does on the video?

Last question (for now  ), do you the oil and CA combination when finishing a mixed material blank like AA and wood? I can't see the oil agreeing with the plastic.


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## jttheclockman (Feb 6, 2015)

TonyL said:


> Thank you. Well, I liked the way it looks. I will try it some more. I wish I knew about the Stand oil - don't need anything else to catch fire. What I still don't understand is why someone can use CA this way and seem to have less work to do as opposed to a few coats of the both, no accelerator, and no sanding after 600.
> 
> Do you mix the BLO or Stand Oil with the CA like the pen turner does on the video?
> 
> Last question (for now  ), do you the oil and CA combination when finishing a mixed material blank like AA and wood? I can't see the oil agreeing with the plastic.




Tony this is just another method of doing a finish and to your point about no sanding I do not know how you get away with that. That blank still needs to be polished if you are after a high gloss finish. I would not use oil on acrylic. The Ca will not stick well in my opinion.
If using light colored woods by all means it yellows. It will give a warm look to the wood. It has to it is an oil. If you want to do away with the CA then use Danish oil and do  a few coats of that. It is boiled linseed oil and polyurethane mixed together. Put as many or as little coats as you want on to give the desired texture or feel you want. Just another finishing method you may want to try.


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## ctubbs (Feb 6, 2015)

Tony, I do not know if anyone has yet mentioned a small problem with any oil finish where it is wiped  on.  Any rag, paper or anything else similar is used to apply or clean up an oil based finish, it MUST be allowed to thoroughly dry before being put into trash.  If folded, compressed or even wadded up and left to dry, there will be a heating happen that can and all to often dose catch fire.  Spread the used applying device out and allow to finish drying a day or so, at least over night.  If you have a metal container that is air tight, they may be placed there and have the lid tightly closed.  The heating happens as the finish oxidizes, no oxygen, no heating, no fire.
Do not let this stop you from using an oil finish.  Not only do we use them often, but professional painters have been using them for many years with no problems.  Just a few precautions to keep us all safe.  Have fun, make shavings and show off all those wonderful pens and things.

Charles


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## TonyL (Feb 6, 2015)

Thank you both. In the video, the turners sands the bare wood to 600, then applies the BLO and CA combination (it's a 5 min video..and 6 years old). 
Once he starts applying the BLO/CA there is no sanding. He does (and I did), polish it at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcgOf4siqc 

I stumbled upon it and thought it looked very simple. I gave it a try earlier this evening and it wasn't bad (and it was certainly fast). Maybe, six years later...this aint the way to go. I just like trying different things. I was impressed by its simplicity. It may "stink" in the long run. Thanks for the input; it is highly regarded!


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## VirgilJ (Feb 16, 2015)

Tony,
I quit turning for about 7-8 years ago and just recently re-started last October. Naturally there were a lot of changes over that period of time so it took me some time to to re-learn some old techniques and to try some of the more popular ones being used today. Things went pretty well and before long I was back to turning some nice looking pens.

The one area where I struggled was finishing. A CA finish is pretty much the standard now but not so much when I quit turning. I used a CA finish sometimes before quitting, but was never very good at it so most of my best pens were finished with lacquer. Re-learning to apply a CA finish ended up in one pen looking very nice and the next was just crap. I don't know why I had so much trouble doing something that thousands of people do almost without thinking, but I did.

At any rate while doing some research trying to get my finishing to be more consistent, I ran across the video you linked to. After trying this technique my finishing made a dramatic improvement. I can't really explain it , all I can say is just about every pen now comes out with a very nice finish. It's also fast and easy to do.

I did notice two differences in using CA/BLO vs Straight CA. The CA/BLO finish seems to come out much, much smother and has a kind of silky feel to it. It also is not quite as shiny as a Straight CA finish. Those are both qualities I like in my wooden pens. I want my wooden pens to look and feel like wood and the texture and gloss of the CA/BLO finish seems to fit the bill very nicely.


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## wyone (Feb 16, 2015)

Tony also suggested to me to use Maguires 105 and 205 for the final finishes.  I was a bit skeptical and could not get any locally, so I ordered it on Amazon and have to say.  I am VERY impressed with it.  It takes away ALL the scratches and leaves an almost flawless finish.  

Thank you Tony!


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## TonyL (Feb 16, 2015)

Thanks Mitch. I have found the 105 and 205 combination to produce a "flawless" finish under 10x magnification. If I see even the slightest radial scratch, I either did not dry sand enough (there should be no shiny spots after drying sanding to 600) or it is time for me to changing my MM. With new MM, I only have to sand until the wine color before apply the 105 and 205. With older MM, I go all the way up to silver (12k). If I don't achieve a flawless finish as described (10x magnification) above, I replace all of my MM pads. That is just what works for me.


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## TonyL (Feb 16, 2015)

Hi Virgil. I found my experience to be the same as your. I can get a really good CA only finish, but a little more sanding and coats are need.

Using the BLO combination, I only apply 4 coats, hardly sand, but achieve a semi-gloss finish at best. Thanks for your reply


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## yaroslaw (Mar 17, 2015)

I use only CA/BLO process, but I changed BLO in it to pure Walnut Oil (food grade). 
I like it more, and walnut oil doesn't go yellow with time.
I use accelerator sometimes when I feel a need (as walnut oil has none in it, and BLO has).

But I have some problems on mixed media (casted objects) that I haven't figured out what causes them.

CA/BLO can be applyed after some CA coats, actually, it smoothes first rough CA coats really well, but you still need to sand. I found out that only some materials (maple, for example) gives with CA/BLO almost perfect finish that can be just polished.


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## TonyL (Mar 17, 2015)

Thank you.


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## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2015)

That is a good video. Even though it's 6 years old, it still helped me to finish better.


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## keithbyrd (Mar 21, 2015)

I dont remember where I read it but probably in the library a few years ago.  I started out with the CA/BLO method.  I was under the impression that the BLO acts as an accelerator for the CA.  When its spinning and you rub it until its dry/polished there really is no sanding needed.  Straight CA you cant get away with that. I quit doing it because I was having trouble with consistency.  I would get cloudy spots in 50% of the pens within a couple of days.  I never could find out what caused that so I just quit doing it.
However this thread has piqued my interest and I may pull it out and try it again - been about 4 years since I've tried it!


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## ripjack13 (Mar 22, 2015)

keithbyrd said:


> I quit doing it because I was having trouble with consistency.  I would get cloudy spots in 50% of the pens within a couple of days.  I never could find out what caused that so I just quit doing it.




I think the cloudy spots are from moisture in the wood, or material you are using.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken about that...


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## keithbyrd (Mar 22, 2015)

ripjack13 said:


> keithbyrd said:
> 
> 
> > I quit doing it because I was having trouble with consistency.  I would get cloudy spots in 50% of the pens within a couple of days.  I never could find out what caused that so I just quit doing it.
> ...



Thats what I thought too but I made 2-3 pens out of the same wood and some of the wood was in my shop 2+ years cut as pen blanks and sometimes I got the cloudy spots and others I didn't.  Gonna give it another shot and see what happens.


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## TonyL (Mar 22, 2015)

I have only finished one pen that way. My only objections in that I can't get a high gloss finish; I do get a semi-gloss finish which I like (others noted the same). I am going to make six or so olive wood pens that way for my Bible group. That will be a decent test. I like the lack of sanding involved. Time will tell.


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## jlnel (Mar 28, 2015)

great video, thanks for the link.


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