# Using acetone between layers of oil finnish



## Tom Lilletveit (May 31, 2018)

I have had experience with oil based finishes getting that slightly sweaty/tacky look, so I thought Id try something new. I now quickly wipe the surface with acetone before applying a new layer of boiled linseed oil (after letting it dry overnight), this removes any finger oil or excess oils. I have done severall layers this way, sanding with finer grit and now using steel wool - the result is very good. Of course, I have no idea what I am doing, but the result seems to be good - any thoughts of doing finishing this way?


I am doing the final two coats with liberon finishing oil since it got some varnish in it which will make a thin hard surface, however I am not so sure if i should be using acetone with the liberon oil ... it smells a bit like white spirit so there might be problems with acetone used here.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Do you mean oil finish like a Danish oil finish or an oil based finish such as a varnish. Acetone is such a strong solvent it could lift a varnish like you put paint stripper on it. Even on a Danish oil finish you would be washing off the hardening oil which makes the finish.


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## Tom Lilletveit (May 31, 2018)

Steve Neul said:


> Do you mean oil finish like a Danish oil finish or an oil based finish such as a varnish. Acetone is such a strong solvent it could lift a varnish like you put paint stripper on it. Even on a Danish oil finish you would be washing off the hardening oil which makes the finish.





Liberon finishing oil is some kind of oil, maybe tung oil, mixed with drying agents and lacquer (similar to tru-oil). It will build up a thin protective surface after severall applications. Yeah, I guess acetone would just remove this outer layer straight off. But it seemed to work nice in combination with boiled linseed oil. But then again i do not want the BLO to build up, i just like how it colours the wood.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The instructions from Liberon say to apply the oil and let it sit for less than 10 minutes and then with a clean dry cloth wipe off all the oil that is on the surface before it gets sticky. The general procedure with that type of finish is to oil the wood and keep applying oil until it seems to not accept any more oil and wipe the wood off clean and let it dry. No oil finish will actually dry in five hours like the directions say. I suspect they just want you to let the oil fully soak in for five hours before applying another coat so you are not rushing the procedure. If you put too many coats on too fast when the oil fully soaked in the finish would look dry and dead and you would think there was something wrong with the finish. 

If you want to know what is in the finish you might open a MSDS sheet on the finish. My computer doesn't do PDF files so I can't do it. If there is tung oil in the finish it might take as much as a week for the finish to dry. Tung oil dries really slow.


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