Has anyone used Tongue oil or Linseed oil on burl cork. If so what is your experience.


Thanks

John

Yes,
Not good.
Simply put, cork is a closed cell material and really does not accept finish.

If you put it on, it will only lay on the surface and then come off.

But you can try either one and see if one or the other works for you.

Good luck

I'll take respectful exception to Roger's post. He has far more experience than I do and his advice is usually well grounded. However, i've used tung oil on burl cork and find that depending on what level of gloss you are trying to obtain it may in fact take several applications of tung oil to obtain your desired finish and level of protection.. Should you find that with wear it needs refreshing it merely takes a wipe down or two with more tung oil to patch it up. And Roger is not saying don't do it. Why don't you try it on a cork ring or two and see what you think before doing an entire grip. That being said, i have a burl cork handle on a split grip rod I have used in the surf for almost 10 years and it has never had any finish on it whatsoever. Despite many dunkings and much fish slime it still looks good.

True Oil gunstock oil works nicely on burl to bring out the grain and prevent soiling, so I would expect other oils to work well too. I don't know if it's "coming off," but the appearance is stable and has looked good for years on a couple of my rods.

Another striking finish is wrap epoxy for a very handsome, glossy, finish.


Search photos for my full name and note the green burl with the Michigan State Spartan helmet.

Roger is correct, cork is a closed cell substance, that will not absorb fluids, that is why is has been used for centuries to float nets. However the surface will accept many finishes, some of which are mentioned above. Many of the finishes enhance the color and grain of burl cork beautifully.

I have also had very good success using multiple coats of TruOil and steel wool buffing between coats.
Rog

I think there are two points being missed here. The party line is that cork doesn't absorb finish therefore finish won't work. But, when cork is sanded its surface is disturbed to the point that some finish is "held," it changes the color of the cork slightly, and depending on the coarseness of the sanding process, it does not always "come off." Oils work to give a little more depth and a little more contrast to the appearance even with natural cork. Keep in mind also that they are not painted on, but rubbed on. Not the same as painting it on.

Burl cork and natural cork are two different materials, and the spaces between the pieces in burl cork do absorb finish to the point that oils change the color giving more contrast, and enough is "held" on the cork pieces so that there really isn't anything "coming off." As stated before, oils are not painted on, but rubbed on.

The best thing to do is to set up a few rings that have been turned and sanded as you plan to use them on the rod and try some different oils and see what you get. Don't be scared off oils without trying them.

After reading all the posts (thank you for all the responses) I decided to take a sample fore grip of burl cork and apply Tongue oil using a gauze pad (yesterday).

The first thing I noticed is fore grip became slightly darker. I have applied several coats without any additional change of color from the first application.

Second and it may be too early to tell but it doesn't feel dry. I don't know how long it takes for it to dry on burl cork.

I plan to wait several days and make some more checks. After that I will apply a coat of paste wax over it and do more checks.

My gut feeling is that it may work for me.

Thanks for all the support.

John.

Tung oil never dries. No true oil finish ever dries.

.........

Tom is technically correct. Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia.

"Tung oil definitely gets hard, but it doesn't happen by evaporation. Chemists classify oils as “non-drying”, “semi-drying”, and “drying”. The word “drying” is misleading because the oils don't really “dry” or evaporate; they “harden” or cure. The most commonly known drying oils in woodworking are tung and linseed oil."

The curing process can take up to 72 hours depending upon temperature.

Wax on a grip sounds counter intuitive!

The response of the cork will vary with the texture of the sanded/turned surface of the cork.

If it feels wet, you most likely are applying too much. My experience indicates that you want just a few drops on your hands and rub it on vigorously. My experience is with Tru Oil gunstock finish. I agree with Phil and Wikipedia. My gunstocks and burl cork grips with Tru Oil finish do not feel wet, and never did after a reasonable cure time. I'm not sure exactly what Tru Oil contains.

I also agree on the paste wax idea. If the oil is not feeling dry then why would paste wax help? After the oil, do nothing.

Try-Oil is a polymerized varnish, not a real oil, and therefore will harden and build depth just like any other varnish.

............

Ah ha! Thanks, Tom.

It acts a lot like oil when applied like oil.

In the old days I used linseed oil, applied in the same manner, and it would dry or cure or somehow change from wet to dry.

The safety sheet for Tru Oil describes it as a mixture of three ingredients, 40-70% Stoddard Solvent, 15-40% modified oil (proprietary), and 7-13% linseed oil.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2018 12:57PM by Michael Danek.