re: Lets Talk "oil finishes"

lwllms,
I was delighted to see your post. I have oftened talked about the expansion of wood due to oil finishes. While most have not noticed or attributed distortion due to seasonal changes, I agree oil finishes can distort wood. It seems the slower drying the worse it is , due to penetration I would assume.
In doing research I used about every type of oil I could get, from the BLO, hard wax , Danish, Walnut ,etc.
We tested the oils on glass, this showed us if they yellowed, and how they dried . It was quite interesting, it dispelled the notion that oils add color to wood, not the case. Very few had enough color to be of any effect unless like a danish oil a colorant was added.
It became quite evident that rather than adding color the oils reacted with the natural tannins in the wood, and the slower it dried the more reaction.
This is one of the reasons that BLO is highly popular for “popping” grain". It dries slow . One interesting thing we did find was that the same BLO that was 3 years old dried much faster and more throughly than a new can . It is my opinion that driers are being added rather than an actual boiling process (polimerzation), I came to this conclusion by adding Japan drier to raw linseed oil and it reacted and dried about the same .
As most know many of the oils are varnish oils, which is a blend of oils, resins and driers, we found these to be the best, in both dry time and durability .
The Minwax Antique oil, was one that did well, as well as their wipe on poly, General Finishes Arm R Seal, Formbys Tung Oil, ( not really tung) , Waterlox (yellows) , all did well. The new System Three Marine Spar Varnish ( excellent but expensive) .
There were others, but I like a nice close to the wood oil finish, but doing this for a living it has to dry quickly and be very durable, clients do not want to “renew” .

I thought this a good subject to get this finishing forum rolling .. I am also impressed with the basis of knowledge we have here.