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I am hoping some one can lead me in the right direction on this one. Recently a bottle of raw tung oil arrived in the mail for me, and I ran to the shop to put a coat of it on a pipe that is basically finished. I buffed the pipe, and the next day it was splotchy and dull. Ok. Obviously I didnt allow a proper drying time. I buffed off the wax with a lightly charged brown Tripoli wheel and let it sit for around five days. Buffed again, now it is nice and shiny, but atill smells faintly like tung oil.

I also tried it on a more recent pipe, but mixed it first 2:1 with turpentine. That pipe is sitting to dry as well, with the same smell as the first. On another pipe, I tried doing a french-ish polish using the 2:1 mix as the oil as a lubricant.

On the first two pipes I had added heat in between rigorous rubbing sessions (heard that tung oil likes to be rubbed). I guess my questions are will the pipes lose their finish once they are smoked? How long should I wait to finish buffing after application? Will the oil become liquid again and/or reignite the tung oil smell and ruin the finish if the pipe is smoked?

I realize this is possibly a big question, as well as a revealing one for those who use tung oil. I am not looking for your secrets, but more of just a nudge to the right direction. Also, if there are negative factors to using tung oil please tell me.

I appreciate your help and advice on this!

Thank you,
Kiel

I think tung oil has a long cure time. I don't think it dries as hard as a lacquer or shellac or sasquatch sweat. I would expect that once it's fully cured, the smell should dissipate and not return with heat from smoking.

I've used tung oil a bit. My method was to coat the pipe, let it sit 20 minutes, wipe off the excess, wait a couple hours, do another coat, etc. I'd do 4 or 5 coats on day one, another 4 or 5 on day two, and then not touch it for a week. After that you can buff and wax. Some people say it takes like six months for tung oil to cure, but that certainly has not been my experience.

Hers a pipe that got no stain, just the tung oil treatment, then buffing and wax:

Also, boiled linseed oil has a much shorter cure time than tung oil, fyi. I use it in my current process.

Pure Tung oil can take up to 6+ months to cure. Polymerized tung oil can take up to 60+ days to fully cure. Danish Oil (combination of drying oils/varnish/drying agent) can take up to 7+ days to cure. Read more about drying oils, woodfinishing, varnishes, etc. You will then have a better understanding of what to try and what will happen.

You can get polymerized tung oil that cures in a day or so, and it's shiny as hell. One caution if you care about this kind of thing - tung oil and particularly polymerized tung oil is pretty effective at blocking vapor, so if a pipe were to want to lose a little moisture during the smoke, this finish would retard that.

I am of the camp that says pipes breathe a bit, so I would go to a less effective barrier, which is... almost anything actually.

PS that's a nice shine Ratimus.

Thanks for the advice and insight guys. I'm gonna try to mix up my own batch of Danish oil with the tung oil and see how that goes. I've tried to get on some of the woodworking forums, but they are either super slow or blocked in China. PMF is sometimes blocked for periods of time overe here too. It can be very frustrating. I'll quite bitching about it and go back home eventually, but for now, this site is truely a gem. I am basically completely reliant on it(Except for when I make the occasional call to my pipemaking friend).

So thanks again. Hopefully I can report some results that might be useful to future pmfers.

Kiel

Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishes" is a worthwhile resource. I would expect that you can order it there in China. If not, I could figure out how to send it over there for you.

sandahlpipe wrote:Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishes" is a worthwhile resource. I would expect that you can order it there in China. If not, I could figure out how to send it over there for you.

Thanks! I found it available out here. I'll get a copy in 3-5 days

what about walnut oil? polymerizes in a couple days. if you were making large pieces that need a salad bowl finish, walnut oil comes up as one of the most popular options. i cut it with beeswax and microwave to make a paste, leaves a soft sheen. you can buff it after its dry.

I think that has potential, I've been experimenting with Walnut oil, but I don't have 100% certain reliable results to talk about yet.

I have tried walnut oil, but I was not fully committed. It seemed too thin to me.

I've only used it a few times, one big success was on pool cues, where a multi-coat and rub gave a really nice lustre that was very uniform.

So here is the result of the first two pipes i put tung oil on.　Ｉ am going to beat them up and see how it goes.



this cutty was doomed from the beginning （first attempt at drilling first）



i'll keep some updates if people are interested。

Kiel

sandahlpipe wrote:Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishes" is a worthwhile resource. I would expect that you can order it there in China. If not, I could figure out how to send it over there for you.

Fantastic book! You will save yourself a lifetime of experimenting by simply reading through the relevant chapters.

sethile wrote:

sandahlpipe wrote:Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishes" is a worthwhile resource. I would expect that you can order it there in China. If not, I could figure out how to send it over there for you.

Fantastic book! You will save yourself a lifetime of experimenting by simply reading through the relevant chapters.

The book is very informative. I still have to experiment a little bit because I am using local materials and products. I'm really happy how the author gets into specific chemical compositions of the resins. I tried mixing a clear vanish I bought over here to mix a danish oil, but it just turned goopy when mixed in turpentine. My "experimentation" is more of a lack of vocabulary here in China to find what I need, fun and frustrating. The book is proving itself helpful, and I thank y'all for the recommended reading.

Off topic, my wife, who is Chinese, is often impressed with my wood/pipe making specific vocabulary, and the stuff that I am able to find and buy that she never knew exsisted. I fear the day when she starts making pipes herself and puts me to shame. She has a BA in sculpting and a Masters in fresco/mural design.

How are those pipes doing Kiel?

I have been playing with pure food-grade walnut oil, and it's good at certain stuff, not so much at others. One of the weird things it seems capable of is penetrating otherwise unpenetrable briar - it'll wick right through 1/2" of material overnight, and that's with a fairly light coat (applied with a pipe cleaner and wiped out). It eventually would build a polishable surface, but not as easy as tung by any means, and reverse-oil curing a pipe is maybe not that clever a plan.

Sasquatch wrote:How are those pipes doing Kiel?

I have been playing with pure food-grade walnut oil, and it's good at certain stuff, not so much at others. One of the weird things it seems capable of is penetrating otherwise unpenetrable briar - it'll wick right through 1/2" of material overnight, and that's with a fairly light coat (applied with a pipe cleaner and wiped out). It eventually would build a polishable surface, but not as easy as tung by any means, and reverse-oil curing a pipe is maybe not that clever a plan.

So far so good. Both are smoked often with the lumberman being my go to pipe over the last two months (probably has something to do with getting better at making stems). It got me thinking about the whole "breathing" of wood. As far as a pipe is concerned, its hollow with two open holes in it. If it needs to breath, than wouldn't it be able to breath just as easily from the inside? I don't see how tung oil would really effect water vapor and such on a pipe. This could also be me just simplifying something that I dont really understand though.

How long does/will it take your walnut oil to cure? Sometimes when I smoke a dunhill on the hotter side I'll get some oil cure flavor with the smoke. I don't enjoy the taste of it or the smell it leaves. Do you have a smokable reverse cured walnut oil pipe yet? I am kind of curious what it would taste like during the breaking in period.(this was supposed to be the third paragraph, but got mixed up on my cellphone)

Anyways, I smoke the pipes quite often, sometimes giving them a break, sometimes not. Annual relative Humidity in Chongqing is 82.7% not sure if that means anything or can effect the breathing process. Its only been almost 2 months since I've started smoking the pipes. I'll put them through a year of tough love and see what happens.

Kiel

holy crap, I just started reading up on this and the cure time for shellac is 25 days??