Tung Oil?

Anyone familiar with this Tung Oil?

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It is supposed to be pure Tung Oil and Green Reports recommended...

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Reply to
Casper
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Not familiar with that brand - certainly cheaper than Lee Valley's. Some good general info can be found in the links on this page : click on the "Tech" and " Instr" links.

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John T.

Reply to
hubops

having used tung oil it is definitely important to get the pure oil

but make sure you really want that kind of finish

i used it on one project but i will limit future use to ornamental stuff instead of daily use stuff

Reply to
Electric Comet

What makes you say that ? How do you test / grade tung oil - for purity ? Daily use vs ornamental ? Huh ? I don't mean to start a war - but tung oil is a capable finish - polymerized tung oil for non-food items.

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John T.

Reply to
hubops

probably tastes it

Reply to
krw

It's non-toxic once it has cured, which takes a while, but in its liquid state is, IIRC, a strong emetic.

Reply to
graham

Electric Comet was heard to mutter:

Only ornamental?

My understanding of Tung oil is that it is quite a good finish for any use if done properly. Is that not true? I've seen quite a few things with it as a finish that have held up well over time.

I recently made the rounds through Woodcraft, Rockler, etc., in my area and no one had pure Tung oil. In WC's favor, they are moving so it may be they have not restocked until after the move. Only thing I could find are the mixed tung finishes, like Formbys.

Reply to
Casper

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If you'd like some pure tung oil, I can send you some tung "nuts". I have two trees and the fruit will be ripe, soon.... maybe now.

The trees are small (maybe 15' tall), ornamental-like, with large (plate si ze) dark green leaves. The fruit are a little smaller than walnuts and ins ide the hull (again, similar to a walnut's green hull) there are 6 lobes of the pithy fruit (seeds). The pith has the texture/hardness of styrofoam and is fibrous, felt-like, which contains the oil. I've never tried to sq ueeze out any oil to use, just the trees look nice, as lawn-type decor/plan tings.

Seems, it would take lots of fruit (5 gallon bucket) to get any significant amount (a pint, maybe?) of oil. I've never squeezed a quantity of fruit, to see what volume of oil is produced.

Each of the 6 lobes, in each fruit, is a seed. Seems, each seed will sprou t readily, hence easy to grow... at least here in south Louisiana. Each s eed needs to dry, before planting. A green (oil filled) seed won't sprout. As a whole fruit dries, it splits open, revealing the 6 drying/dried lobe s/seeds. The lobes/seeds are like wedges of an orange (sliced sphere), tha t wedge shape.

The fruit is not edible, as some folks ask me about, as they don't recogniz e the tree specie. They see the fruit, hanging on the tree, and think/won der if it may be edible, and ask. It certainly looks like it might be an edible fruit.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

yeah something that is not handled or comes in contact with anything

but everyone likes different things i like using modern synthetic finishes for ease of application and low maintenance

tung finish has a unique look and it is nice but needs long cure time and sometimes needs a reapplication

got mine on ebay or amazon

i think

has been awhile

Reply to
Electric Comet
< snips >

Thanks for the info, Sonny. Seems like it might be a bit of a messy curiosity ? as a yard tree ? yes / no ? I have a young horse-chestnut tree - that my neighbour just noticed - he's not impressed - useless messy things .. John T.

Reply to
hubops

No, it's not a messy tree, at all. When the leaves drop, they deteriorate fast, so there's no build up of leaves. I'll take some pics. In the mean time, here's the flower.... about 2" in diameter. It's a pretty flower an d very showy and noticeable, when the tree is in full bloom.

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I easily rake the fruit, but often one or two are missed, so I mow over tho se. When hit with the lawn mower, the oil-filled fruit shatter easily.... About like hitting a pine cone, I suppose. When the fruit are dry, there' s a fairly hard clunk to the mower-hit, but not anything like hitting a wal nut. Later on, when the 6 seeds separate from the pod and are dry, each i ndividual will shatter into little fibrous clumps, no damage to the mower. The individual dry seeds are about the size of your thumb, about the size of a medium size pecan.

My trees produce maybe 50-60 fruit each year, about 10 gallons total, so th ere's not many to deal with.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

I remember when there was a tung tree plantation here in S. Georgia. Never knew what happened to the trees but they are there no more.

Reply to
G. Ross

Snip

The cats got the tung. ;)

Reply to
Leon

2013 article here :

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also - on the third page - an old photo of the longleaf yellow pine forests, pre-logging. Is this the "southern yellow pine" that is mentioned here sometimes ? John T.

Reply to
hubops

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Yes, but there are several species of pine that fall in the category of SYP . The longleaf is a premium pine.... tight grained, great for flooring an d the like. Most LLP were harvested, so there aren't many left, that's wh y salvaged LLP is very desireable.

Additionally, here's some Tung tree pics. One fruit, on the tree, is stil l green hulled and another is starting to turn brown. On the seed pics, o ne seed has the hull peeled off, after separating from the other 5 from the fruit pod. The trees are in front of my woodwhop. I recently trimmed s ome lower branches. You can see the tree trunks aren't very big.

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Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

Thanks for the info & pics. The tree trunks do look small for the size of the foliage. John T.

Reply to
hubops

snipped-for-privacy@ccanoemail.ca wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I beg to differ. Horse chestnut trees are *not* useless at all. Cut, split, and dried, they make

*outstanding* firewood.
Reply to
Doug Miller

SYP is a group of pines including slash, long and shortleaf and loblolly.

Reply to
dadiOH

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