OIling a wood carving

[OldWood]

We bought an 18" long sleeping wooden duck last summer. Makes a nice decoration by the pond. It's carved in a burr which at a guess, because the wood is definitely yellowish, is chestnut, and like all burrs is what might be described as characterful - ie has holes in it !

The seller told us that they had soaked it liberally in linseed oil and to continue with that. By the end of last summer when we put it under cover, the wood had darkened quite a bit and I decided today, regardless of whether it was artistically correct, to give it a good sand down and recover some of the wood colour. So the question is now, do we continue with the linseed or is something else better, bearing in mind that this is a piece of wood that cannot be sealed because of the inclusions in it. I was quite interested in a post here about oiling an oak door which the OP ended up doing with tung oil and that has lasted well for 4 years.

Rob

 

[tekno.mage]

Tung oil will definitely darken the wood, possibly even more than linseed oil - it also needs lots of coats to give good protection out of doors and takes a long time to dry between coats. I'd try a hardwax oil - either the Chestnut offering (this does not claim to be exterior grade, but I found 3 coats worked very well on a larch & chestnut stool my partner made which gets left outside in the rain fairly often and roughly handled around in an open-sided barn the rest of the time - it's still unblemished after 2 years of such abuse) or Osmo Exterior UV protection oil. Neither of these products will darken the wood anything like as much as tung oil, and both dry slightly quicker too.