Linseed Oil Disaster

All my English Oak furniture was looking a bit tired. The furniture varies, some has shellac I think and has flaked in places. I cleaned it all down first and gave it all a good dose of teak oil. It came up really nice but rather dull. Next I put boiled linseed oil on. I've totally over done it. Unlike teak oil I've found it has dried into a sticky mess, covered in dust and dog hairs and in some places blistered!. Oh I wish I'd done a test piece. I tried a bit of white spirit to see if I could remove it, didn't touch it. What am I going to do ? HELP !!!!

Hi and welcome.


Have you tried turps?
I had to remove some bees wax and the only thing that would remove it was warmed turps. ( I warmed it by sitting it in some warm water ).

Al :)

You may have to scrape it back. Just use a sharp scraper and carefully take off all the sticky stuff. That should get you back to the original finish or bare wood and then you can start again.

What's is white spirit anyway, out of curiosity? As ozwinner says, turps should shift it, but it may stink your house out. I'd use natural turps (smells great) rather than mineral.

Last resort is thinnners, which will almost certainly shift linseed oil.

White spirit is great for getting fresh oil paint etc out of clothing, it does not leave a stain after drying. It is used as a cleaning agent amongst other things and sold by petroleum companies. I keep a drum in the shed but must confess to not reading the instructions, unless beaten to it I'll have a look and follow up. I've tried as a reviver a combination of one third each, white vinagar, turps and boiled linseed which seemed OK but nothing to be excited about, I'd stick with Ubeaut in preference. Equally the outside deck gets an annual coat of 50/50 boiled linseed, turps. A few years back I applied some mixed stuff left over from the previous year, it dried to a sticky mess and in the end even after scrubbing and scrapping there is still the odd spot that holds dog hair. Any tips on effective cleanup would be appreciated, neat turps, scrubbing brush followed by pressure blasting worked on the deck (almost!) but not suitable for anything of value.



JohnC

Nothing dissolves dried linseed oil, unless you resort to paint stripper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JB

What's is white spirit anyway, out of curiosity? As ozwinner says, turps should shift it, but it may stink your house out. I'd use natural turps (smells great) rather than mineral.

Last resort is thinnners, which will almost certainly shift linseed oil.

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Gum turps may smell great, but inhaling it will stuff your brain & liver even more than mineral turps.

Use with care!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Len McCarthy

Nothing dissolves dried linseed oil, unless you resort to paint stripper.

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this might sound odd but you can try raw linseed oil - it'll take a thick coat and a while to soak in but can work well at times .