Formsby Tung Oil

[GBExpat]

I noted you did find a bottle of the stuff and not a can.

Interestinger & interestinger.

Yes, at first I was thinking that maybe it was specialty packaging for a retailer then I remembered seeing one of the Formby's products page items in a plastic bottle so I googled it (DUH!) and hit the motherload of images.

I even googled "Formsby" just to be sure there wasn't another MFR of which I was unaware.

If the product is, indeed, Formby's Tung Oil, it must be very new to the market ... and I still question the "High Gloss" descriptor ... unless it is, true, polymerized Tung Oil, as Elkins45 suggested. From my reading years ago it seems to me that a polymerized Tung Oil would tend to be glossier (because it builds faster being partially polymerized) than regular Tung Oil.

I look forward to seeing a pic of that bottle.

It's sounding more & more like there is a new product on the market that many of us will want to source & try. I, for one, have always wanted to try polymerized Tung Oil, but I never could find it offered anywhere.

 

[loose noose]

Below are photos of the finished product, BTW I couldn't get that bottle of Formby's Tung Oil back as he wasn't home, curse of the working class I guess.

 

[HankB]

The MSDS indicates that Formsby Tung Oil Finish is about 69% solvent - depending on the revision of the document, either mineral spirits or naphtha. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it's usual to thin the oil down in order to get it to penetrate the wood more deeply, at least for initial coats.

Unfortunately, the MSDS doesn't list the other ingredients. The fact that it includes the word "Finish" strongly suggests some sort of varnish is included.

When I refinish a stock, I use 100% pure tung oil from Woodcraft, and thin it as much as 4:1 with mineral spirits for the first coat, which I slather on heavily for about 20 minutes before wiping off the excess. I let it dry for several days, even though I've added a little Japan drier to speed the cure. Then I apply another coat at 3:1, repeat, then 2:1, 1:1, and eventually get to pure tung oil; by that time, I'm applying it with my fingers and a few drops will cover the stock. (If I get a section that doesn't look quite right, I wet sand with tung oil as a lubricant.) I get a durable finish that's penetrated as much as practical, lightly built up on the surface, and is easily repaired.

 

[loose noose]

BTW GBEXPAT, you may be right, I went back to the furniture store where I purchased it and I did see on the bottle where it did contain varnish, therefore I stand corrected, It was Ashley's Furniture store btw. Hank B sounds like you really go to town on your stock refinishing, not sure I would want to go thru all that though. I do remember when I went thru "Industrial Arts" in high school we could refinish a stock using rotten stone process, man they came out beautiful with or without natural grain.

 

[GBExpat]

BTW GBEXPAT, you may be right, I went back to the furniture store where I purchased it and I did see on the bottle where it did contain varnish ...

RATS! I was beginning to hope that I was going to be able to find a source for the fabled polymerized Tung Oil.

Thanks for the extra effort & update, loose noose!

 

[Jim Watson]

What of tung oil allergy?
I once read that some people are allergic to tung oil and they did not enjoy shooting a rifle made in WWII when tung oil was substituted for linseed oil.

 

[GBExpat]

What of tung oil allergy?

First I have ever heard of that.

 

[BBBBill]

Allergy to tung oil is real. Google it.

 

[Maj Dad]

Some people are allergic to injectable epinephrine, a substance produced naturally by the body and the cardinal medicine for anaphylactic allergic reactions (as in the EpiPen). Go figure.

I have used both Formby's Tung Oil Finish and raw tung oil (as used to dip military stocks in during the big WW), and they are as different as BLO and raw linseed oil. I think the horse is well-beaten, so I won't elaborate on the differences, but the outcomes are indeed different. I have use Formby's finish on an old oak ice box and it is drop dead beautiful after just one coat (back in the 70's). I also used it on a couple of of GI stocks and rubbing it on in thin coats worked well, but the finish is not the original GI spec, beautiful though it may be. The raw tung oil takes forever to dry, and if you put it on in any thickness at all it will never dry and you will have to wipe it off and start over. After going through a bunch of coats, a GI birch M14 stock looks like a million bucks, and it is the GI spec finish.

Totally different finishes, and different application techniques. Honestly, I prefer Watco's Danish Oil nowadays, but I still have them all.

 

[GBExpat]

Honestly, I prefer Watco's Danish Oil nowadays, but I still have them all.

Which is actually Watco Danish Oil Finish ... another of this class of products that produce a hardshell varnish finish rather than the oil finish that the name inadvertently(?) suggests.