Oil finish for wood furniture

Oil finish

Oil finish on teak wood furniture

Oil for finishing the wood is consider as a traditional finishing material. it may be the oldest finishing material used by the human. It already used widely when other finishing materials such as: shellac or wax are unknown yet. In a few decades ago, in about 18^th century, finishing with oil is very popular, may be because there is no other finishing materials for transparent finish . At that time the spraying equipment was not available yet, so the finishing application is only done with rag and brush.

The oil for wood finish, usually is derived from the seeds of plants that is known as linseed oil. The oil can produce a natural wood looked with enhance the beauty of the wood grain and pores. Now some people still like this finish finish since his unique appearance. This finishing produces a distinctive appearance that can not be completely imitated by modern finishing materials. There are many names to the oil finish such as: Tung oil, Danish oil, teak oil, etc. Tung oil is refer from the oil that is made from extracted the seeds of a tung plant which is well known in china, so also known as china oil. Danish oil is brand name, the oil finish is mixed with varnish to increase his finishing quality. Teak oil is quite popular since it widely used to finish teak wood.

Oil finish is usually brown or clear. To produce a certain wood colors it can be mixed with a pigment. The pigment is usually inorganic pigments. 
Now there are also several manufacturer of oil finish which provides the oil finish in a variety  colors that can be selected in accordance with the desired finishing color. 

 Oil is applied with rag

The advantages of oil finish are:

• Produces a very natural appearance, enhancing the beauty and uniqueness of the wood.
  

• Can be applied with a very simple way, just wipe, dip, washed, or brushed then wiped and smoothed with a brush or rag. It does not need a special equipment such as spray gun, and special room to do the finishing process.
  

The oil will be absorbed by the wood and go to fill the pores of the wood. It will create a very natural look, showing the beauty of wood pores and grain pattern. The oil finish that is widely used now is the teak oil, an oil finish to be applied to the teak wood furniture. Teak wood which is basically considered as a naturally strong and durable wood even for outdoor uses is leveraged to be stronger and nicer with the teak oil applications. With the application of teak oil, then the appearance of the beauty and uniqueness of the teak wood pores and grains can appear in maximum results. The teak oil application will add the strength to the teak wood by react to the wood to make stronger and durable wood.

Oil finish is not really form a film layer on the surface, no matter how many times you apply, the oil will only wet the surface and goes into the pores and grain. Therefore, oil finished can not provide protection to the wood underneath. It can not form the gloss of the finish resulted. The finishing appearance would be very natural, slim with a very low gloss. If the high gloss is needed, it can be buffed, but the results obtained are also very limited. 

The disadvantages of the oil finish:

• Almost provide no protection to the wood layer underneath

• Does not form a layer film and cannot create gloss.

• Results of coloring are very limited; the resulting color highly depends on color and appearance the unfinished wood underneath.