Tung Oil, Yes or No

[sumusfumus]

Try: Walnut Oil, or Coconut oil...both edible/food-grade quality....both smell great, and both can be easily found in any good health/food stores, and markets. Use the Walnut Oil for dressing up a fancy goat cheese and arugula salads. A small bottle will last a lifetime when used for just pipes. When wiped onto pipes the fragrance of these two oils quickly dissipates. I use the Walnut Oil mixed with some pure, unbleached, natural, Bee's Wax. Rub the creamy mixture onto your warm, just smoked, pipes.
Frank

 

[macysdad]

awesome. thanks frank.

 

[nevadablue]

Walnut oil, must find some. I have some beeswax from our attempt at bee keeping. I figure it is worth about $1000 per pound, based on what we invested in that failed venture. Using the wax on my pipes will raise the value of my collection greatly. :lol:

 

[sumusfumus]

BTW, as I mentioned.....Walnut Oil can be found in any well stocked health food store, large stores with a "Gourmet" section, possibly, Trader Joe's, etc. It is used primarily to dress greens and salads. It's always sitting next to other specialty oils, e.g.....Avocado, Olive, Grape Seed, Flax Seed....etc....all food-grade oils...so nothing toxic is in them.
Oils used for furniture/wood finishes like Formby's/Minwax, etc, contain spreaders, resins, siccatives/dryers, colorants, and God knows what else. I would not use it on any part of a briar/wood/Meerschaum pipe. Just the fumes coming off a hot pipe would turn me off. Who wants to smell paint/varnish/resins while sipping some smoke?
One caveat....organic oils can and do go rancid after many months/years, especially if kept in a warm storage area. closet, garage.... Keep your oils in a cool/dark storage area, even in a refrig'. Walnut oil is delicious when used to dress fresh salad greens, so just use it for it's intended purpose. It's cheap, always available, and you'll not need very much for your pipes.
BTW, Pure, UNPERFUMED, Cocoa Butter works just as well. It must be raw, pure, unrefined, and contain no scents/perfumes/fragrances, skin/hair lotions, essential oils. Pharmaceutical grade = 100% Cocoa Butter.
Try: (Bulk Apothecary.com) for waxes, oils, etc....but, there are other sources for these products.
Frank

 

[mawnansmiff]

Wouldn't walnut and coconut oil become rancid over time as olive oil tends to?
I would stick to using aniline stains followed by a couple of coats of carnauba wax.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Jay-
Back atcha for reading comprehension!! Re-read the post above yours.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Well spotted my man...mea culpa
Regards,
Jay.

 

[sablebrush52]

Or, you could use what the makers of classic British pipes used prior to waxing, gum arabic.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Jesse, can you explain how gum arabic was used on pipes please? I know it's sometimes used as a binder in flakes and plugs but not how it is/was used on pipes.
Educate us please ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[sablebrush52]

Jesse, can you explain how gum arabic was used on pipes please? I know it's sometimes used as a binder in flakes and plugs but not how it is/was used on pipes.
Educate us please ::

Ni Jay,
My understanding is that it was brushed on in a solution to help smooth tiny inconsistencies in the surface, how many coats I do not know. Once set the pipe was sent on to final polishing.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Thanks Jesse, I never knew that.
This forum truly is a fount of knowledge ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[cranseiron]

Just to clarify about Tung oil. It is a type of nut that grows on trees and is pressed like any other nut to extract the oil. The advantage of Tung oil is that it dries to a hard finish without driers or any other additives and it's been used as a wood finish for hundreds of years. Just make sure the label states 100% Tung oil. Old Masters is a good brand. I'm not trying to push this as "the best" finish, but only that it is completely natural as any other nut oil, dries harder, is more durable and extremely easy to apply.

 

[craiginthecorn]

If you've got a pipe to experiment on, try wet sanding with oil and 0000 steel wool or very fine automotive wet/dry sandpaper. I'm an amateur woodworker and that's one of my favorite techniques when using an oil or Danish Oil finish. Makes woods buttery smooth. Tung oil does dry relatively hard, but that's not what you're using it for here. To build a finish with Tung oil takes many coats and is quite time-consuming to apply. The carnauba is your actual finish on a pipe.
You're using oil just to enhance the grain of the pipe, so all sorts of oils would work just fine; but, I'd avoid those which plasticize, like canola, corn, and soy. They get sticky. I like camellia oil, which I already have in my workshop for protecting the steel of my chisels and hand planes. It never gets sticky.

 

[jpmcwjr]

You're using oil just to enhance the grain of the pipe, so all sorts of oils would work just fine; but, I'd avoid those which plasticize, like canola, corn, and soy. They get sticky. I like camellia oil, which I already have in my workshop for protecting the steel of my chisels and hand planes. It never gets sticky.

All those are also subject to becoming rancid, as is olive oil. Mineral oil, OTH, seems to be free of rancidity, though don't know about plasticization.