My grandpa told me to always use boiled linseed oil on walnut, but it ruined a table

He swore by it for years, said it would bring out the grain like nothing else. So I tried it on a solid walnut dining table I was refinishing for a client in Tacoma. Honestly, it never fully cured, stayed sticky for weeks even in a warm shop. Ended up having to strip the whole thing back down and start over with a different finish. Has anyone else had a finish just refuse to dry properly on walnut?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey9432mo ago

My uncle's woodshop in Spokane always mixes a little mineral spirits with boiled linseed oil to help it penetrate and dry on dense woods like walnut. That trick might have saved your table, and it lines up with what @taylor637 said about needing a super thin coat. The old methods sometimes need a small update to work right.

averys522mo ago

Yeah, boiled linseed oil is a mess waiting to happen on walnut. I read a woodworking forum thread where a bunch of people said the same thing, that it just stays gummy forever. The problem is the oil can't polymerize right if you put it on too thick, and walnut's dense grain doesn't help. That old advice works for some open-grained woods but it's a gamble on walnut. You basically have to do whisper-thin coats and wait weeks between them, which nobody has time for. Stripping it was your only real move.

taylor6372mo ago

That "gamble on walnut" take is too harsh. I've used boiled linseed oil on it for ages and it works fine if you wipe off ALL the excess. The sticky mess happens when people leave it on like a paste instead of a thin coat.