Zeddedhed":1jvyqm2v said:
Will these two do the trick?
You could mix them, but I don't think there's any benefit in doing so for the application you describe. You could mix them because the ingredients are compatible, in both cases being made up of, essentially, in each case white spirit, boiled linseed oil (and/or possibly pure tung oil) a resin, and some other minor constituents, albeit the proportions are different one to another. Danish oil is in essence a form of varnish that's been configured for a wiping application.
You can make your own wiping varnish simply by taking an oil based varnish and adding white spirits until it's thin enough to work with a rag. You can use interior varnish (short oil) or exterior varnish (long oil) for this mix, and some people like to add boiled linseed oil too, which just makes the finished film softer. Exterior varnish is generally not a great choice for interior woodwork. It's too soft. It's designed to be flexible so that it can tolerate large wood movement. Interior varnish is generally a poor choice for exterior woodwork, being less flexible and with the characteristic of forming a tougher film, i.e., it's more brittle and can't cope with large wood movement.
For your application, and assuming the door you describe is set in an exterior location, I'd simply apply the stuff as directed on the can, i.e., it probably says apply with a brush. You want a decent thickness of film which you'll get from two three brushed on coats. It's commonly reckoned that five coats (or so) of wiped on varnish equates to one coat of a normal varnish job applied by brush: to get the same thickness of film after three brushed coats you might have to increase varnish application time by a factor of perhaps 15. That doesn't make any sense to me.
Having said all that a paint finish will almost always protect wood exposed to the elements better than any clear finish, e.g., varnish. What causes most of the deterioration is a combination of UV light and weather, plus poor maintenance leading to cracks in the paint or varnish that lets water in and traps it leading to mould growth, etc. Paint simply does a better job of excluding both weather and UV than a clear finish, assuming it's maintained every two or three years by rubbing back and applying another coat. Slainte.
