There is plenty of manufacturer bashing on this forum, and Lord knows that includes me where I thought it was warranted. And many contributors have helped steer people to quality retailers/mfgrs, particularly Lee Valley, which I as a newbie have very much appreciated too.
But I thought I'd throw in a review of a product I have really come to like...Tried and True oil finishes.
I live in Michigan, so pretty much the only time you can apply finishing material outside is during the summertime, roughly defined as running from early afternoon on July 7th to late afternoon on July 7th. That means, unless you have a heated shop, you're most likely to be working inside if you're a hobbyist. Although my shop is in the basement, I have to do most of my glue-up and finishing in a spare bedroom.
I love the close-to-the-wood feeling that a BLO finish provides, but most of the ones I've seen contain solvents and driers, and therefore a fairly high VOC content. Particularly WATCO.
So lo-and-behold I saw these advertised somewhere as being __boiled__ linseed oil...boiled being defined as actually having been _boiled_. They have no driers, they have no solvents, they have no VOCs. I can finish with them and not have to worry about the health effects of vapors, nor about the "blowing the house to kingdom come" effects too.
And I freakin' love the finish these oils provide. They come in three flavors...one with pure BLO, one with some natural pine resin added to act as a semi-varnish, and one which I can't remember and haven't used.
The only downside is that they require a temperature of at least 70 degrees to properly cure, so I run a space heater in the room to provide that. But they're much less labor-intensive to work, too...you don't have to flood the surface and keep wiping off for eternity. You simply put a relatively thin wetting coat on the piece, wait five mins, and wipe it off. Ten hours later, buff it out, then lather, rinse, repeat if you want.
My only affiliation with the company is "totally satisfied customer."