Your House Doctor is a site for anyone who is looking for help with home repairs, buying new fixtures and fittings, choosing furniture, or just about anything else you might need to know about. Are you looking to do a bit of DIY plumbing, carpentry or decorating? If so take a look.
The site is expanding all the time so keep coming back. You never know what you might find here. Woodworking, plumbing, bathrooms, gardening, decorating and many other things will find their way onto these pages. Do you want to change your home and brighten it up with a little DIY?
Take a look at our special woodwork section which has all kinds of tips and suggestions for DIY woodwork. Whether you are an expert or a beginner you will find something interesting here.
Using Danish Oil As A Wood Finish
Danish oil is an almost clear satin finish, so it gives a soft, waxy look to a piece of woodwork. It tends to dry hard and provides a really strong, waterproof final coating and is not only used as a finish. It is excellent for priming wood prior to applying paint, or a coat of varnish, or to seal bare wood.
This is probably the easiest wood finish to use and very quick to apply. It takes somewhere between four and eight hours to dry thoroughly depending on things like humidity and heat.
Clean up is as simple as the application because brushes will soon come clean in white spirit. It is also possible to apply the oil with rags but these need to be kept in a sealed metal container because they can be a fire hazard in the woodwork shop. They have been known to self ignite, or they may harden and be of no use when you come to use them again.
Two coats of Danish oil is the minimum needed but heavy traffic areas like work surfaces may need a third coat.
A thick coat should be applied over the entire surface with a brush, or rag and then left for five minutes, or so. Once around half the area being oiled looks to be drier than the rest of it, wipe over the surface with a clean cloth, exerting a little pressure as you do so. This is done so that the oil is redistributed over the wood to give an even finish.
Once the finish is properly dry rub the surface with very fine abrasive paper if you are working with softwood, or use very fine steel wool (grade 00) if you are finishing hardwood. Always work in the direction of the grain because cross grain scratching is very difficult to remove.
Give the whole things a further coat of Danish oil and wipe off any surplus with a clean cloth once the surface goes sticky, or tacky, but only wipe in the direction of the grain.
