Drying problem with tung oil.

[Tools4Me]

Never having used an oil finish before, I bought a can of Feast & Watson Tung Oil for a merbau book shelf I made. On the can it says touch dry in 2 hours, dry/recoat in 24 hours. But it is not dry. It's been 3 days (this morning is the 4th) and if you touch it you still get oil on your hands. Not much because it has soaked in, but it shows no sign of drying.

I did follow the instructions - brushed it on and wiped it off after 60 minutes. The weather has been OK in Brisbane, reasonably warm days and I don't think the humidity has been a problem.

Is it going to dry? When? Can I force it to dry? Or can I get it off somehow?

If this has been covered before, can someone point me to the thread?

Cheers.

[Christos]

I am not able to comment on that particular brand as I never used it. I have use pure Tung Oil on a piece and it did take ages to dry. From memory I think over 7 days and raised the grain on the piece. I sanded it and then reapplied another coat. It had produced a Matt finish which was not exactly what I wanted.

If Feast Watson is 100percent Tung Oil then it will take a little while to dry.

[Master Splinter]

Generally, Tung oil works best if cut about 50% with a solvent such as orange oil...otherwise it's sloooooowwwwww to dry.

Wipe yours as dry as possible with a rag, leave for a day or two, and then hit it with a buff to friction polish it (assuming it's already fine sanded).

The old manta for finishing oil finishes is: 'Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, yearly thereafter."

[LGS]

Merbau is an interesting timbere. It contains large amounts of Silicates, which probably won't take up the oil and in addition, it is oily in itself. It may be that Wipe On Poly is the best option for this shelf.

However, if f you can put in some work now, you can get a beautiful finish using Tung Oil and White Spirit that will last for years, is stain, moisture and heat resistant and needs only a wipe over with a damp cloth, or spay with "Spray and Wipe."
Here is the method. It is simple and straight forward. Trying to cut corners will end in grief. I've attached some pics of the end result. Once you've done this, you need not worry about oiling again unless you have need to cover some scratches. In this case a simple wipe over with the Tung Oil/Spirit mix is all that's required.

Regards,

Rob