Favorite exterior Oil finish?

[splitshot]

Score from one of our wood haulin' trips. Mesquite, going to be a beverage table on the porch. Don't want to use the flakey poly stuff, just an oil which will keep this from checking..

First I filled in the center cracks with epoxy and sanded down.

 

[splitshot]

Just slapped on some Watco Danish oil to bring out the grain:




Temped to hit the whole thing with Linseed, but am up for any ideas..

 

[WarDamnEagle]

That looks great. I didn't know that mesquite grew that large. I like the Watco personally but I'm not sure how well it will hold up on a porch. Guess that depends on the weather conditions.

Is it completely dry?

 

[splitshot]

That looks great. I didn't know that mesquite grew that large. I like the Watco personally but I'm not sure how well it will hold up on a porch. Guess that depends on the weather conditions.

Is it completely dry?

I'm sure there is some moisture, but it has been air drying since October.

Here are some larger slabs pulled from a woodworking site:

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Very nice. If they are 3" thick or thicker then you could get some very nice rifle or shotgun stocks made from those. (Or at least I could if you would mail me one. I'll take the one on the left please.)

 

[rockcrawler]

Nice work!

Be careful with linseed oil if you're thinking the raw stuff as it can ruin a nice piece of wood. Raw linseed oil is used to bring out the grain in lighter woods and to generally darken, once you have slightly below the shade you want you go with the boiled stuff or some other oil. But care is needed as it is easy to overdo it and instead of "bringing out the grain" you could easily completely destroy it ending up with a very plain looking piece of dark wood. You would certainly never use raw linseed oil on fine high quality hardwoods.

 

[splitshot]

Nice work!

Be careful with linseed oil if you're thinking the raw stuff as it can ruin a nice piece of wood. Raw linseed oil is used to bring out the grain in lighter woods and to generally darken, once you have slightly below the shade you want you go with the boiled stuff or some other oil. But care is needed as it is easy to overdo it and instead of "bringing out the grain" you could easily completely destroy it ending up with a very plain looking piece of dark wood. You would certainly never use raw linseed oil on fine high quality hardwoods.

Yep, learned my lesson with raw, plus it never dries, just turns into goo.