What wood and finish for 62 Tradewind?

[Grand Master]

Watco oil is still available. You can find it at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, Rockler, etc.

It comes in a variety of colors as well as "Natural" clear finish. It also gives the hand rubbed finish described by others using linseed oil.

I believe that Airstream used this in 1962.

[mhilley]

Dr. Dan, I was bothered by your lead in linseed oil comment so I called a friend who owns a paint manufacturing business is Massachusetts. He told me that there is mangenese in boiled linseed oil, not lead. He said the EPA caused the lead to be removed several years back. My only thought is - what does mangenese do to you? Is it less dangerous than lead? Also, I asked the salesperson at Home Depot for turpentine and he told me it was no longer carried! I guess you have to go to a paint store for such.

[Dr Dan]

Thanks mhilley, I was unaware of the change. I had toxicology 26 years ago and I didn't know they had fixed that problem. I looked up mangenese in my Small animal toxicology text and there was no listing, so as far as I can tell it was a good switch. You can truly learn something new every day, thanks again.

[flyfshr]

It looks as though a PO has done some woodworking on your cabinetry, at least on the galley cabinet. The large door has been sanded down through the veneer on the upper left and so have a couple of the drawers. They also took out the slide-out bread board from above the drawers. Who knows what type of finish he may have used. It will take some experimentation to get a matching finish.

Excellent info everyone. Thanks for posting.

Brad
FF

[Tony S]

You can get Japan Drier at a good paint store. I use in a mix of boiled linseed oil, semi gloss poly and paint thinner for my furniture. The proportions I vary. It is a good finish but not great for a table top and water. You can use up to about 3 oz of drier per gallon I never have used quite so much. I get a real nice finish by sanding with 2000 grit before last coat or even when I apply last coat comes out like silk. I don't know if that is needed in your case. I sand to 320 grit before first coat but 220 will due just fine too. I apply it with blue paper towels I get from Costco.

One thing about Watco is the long time before you can put a top coat on it really slows things up. The formula has changed as was mentioned earlier post. Good Luck. Tony

P.S. remember to dispose of the oil soaked rags properly I put in a 5 gal bucket of water, to avoid the chance of spontaneous combustion which really can happen.