Owatrol D1 - mixed fillings

Last job this year - before Xmas and New Year - oiling ceiling planks.

I took sanded board home, to oil them in warm and dry air and to have better control over the process. The trick with Owatrol D1 is that wood needs to be saturated with oil BUT there must not be any excess on the surface. Such oil will harden and stay as bright, shiny spots on otherwise smooth and silky surface, looking ugly. One of ceiling planks which I oiled on the boat developed this, other turned out uniformly silky. Having now all planks at home I could see to it and check what needs to be done to avoid this.

Oiling itself is easy and very pleasant - seeing wood colour and texture coming back to life. Unlike varnish oiling requires no wet edge so it goes quickly and easy. The last coat is the one which stays on the surface and does not want to dy within 30 minutes. Then - according to label - one should take a cotton rug, dope it lightly in oil and wipe all excess oil from the surface. So I did. Planks looked a bit shiny but uniform.

I left them for 2 hours and came back to see how it develops. I noticed that wood is “sweating” oil in few spots, forming these shiny areas I want to avoid.

Following instructions on the label I wiped them again with oil-wetted rug but they kept coming back. I then switched to clean cotton rug, dry, and wiped them several times. Oil was already touch-dry but not yet hardened. It seems this procedure works better - spots loose shiny blink but with light at certain angle I still see them.

This can be due to the fact that these old mahogany planks were well soaked with linseed oil many years ago but also because D1 is in fact considered a base for D2 which gives varnish-like finish. I’ll see how they look in daylight, after oil cures but now it seems that D2 is unavoidable.