Curing Walnut oil using a Kiln

[William Rogers]

I uses a variety of finishes, lacquer, Danish oil, wipe on poly. I also like using walnut oil, but the cure time is a lot longer (sometimes weeks) than the other finishes I use. Does anyone use their kiln to cure walnut oil? If so, what temperature and how long?

 

[Doug Freeman]

I do. More a “hot box” vs a kiln - I don’t use a temp control, I adjust airflow through thhe box by opening sizes. I havent measured the temp the wood gets to, but I’m guessing 100-110F based on touch. If I have the shop ac on, I put work outside to cure. It dramatically reduces walnut oil cure time, and helps other oil based finishes cure significantly faster.

Some claim uv helps walnut oil cure faster, but my testing demonstrated to me higher temps and some air movement are better.

 

[Richard Coers]

I didn't think walnut oil ever really cured, it has to oxidize. That's why it takes so long, there are no metallic driers in it.

 

[robo hippy]

Walnut oil does cure, but it takes a while. Exposure to UV light helps. A light bulb kiln will speed things up a bit as well. I guess this is similar to tung oil, but I have no experience with it. Not having the chemical driers in it is a plus to me.

robo hippy

 

[Richard Coers]

You might try reading longer posts from the past.

Walnut oil curing on Poplar

I recently made a set of 8 coffee mug tumblers for someone that ordered them. I used dry poplar and per my standard routine used walnut oil. After a few days they still feel a bit oily and leave a thin film on your fingers when you handle them. I've wiped them down several times, brought them...

www.aawforum.org

 

[William Rogers]

@Richard Coers I had read that post. My takeaways were walnut oil does cure, heat and/or UV light may help, different species of wood may react different with walnut oil, and don’t oversaturate the first coat. The reason for this post was to see if anyone was actually using a kiln to speed up the walnut oil curing process. If so, what parameters. So far Doug is using his light box to speed up the curing. I’m going to go with 3 or 4 coats on my next application. The first couple of coats I will not over saturate the piece and put it in my kiln for a day or two @ 90-100F. I have a small fan in the kiln for air movement. The last coat I will put on heavy, wipe the excess and put it in the kiln at the same temp checking couple of days.