Motivations
- Protect wood
- Make wood smooth to touch
- Avoid wood smell in stuff stored in cupboards
- Better appearence - highlighting natural knots and grains.
Clear finish vs paint
- Duration of protection: Paint generally lasts longer.
- Reapplication: Varnish/ natural oils are easier to reapply. Can do oneself - using dipped cloth. Old paint needs to be sanded away.
Wax polish
- Mostly floor wax products can be used.
Polyurethane coatings
- ICA Pidilite Iridea water based range
Acrylic, polyester, polyacrylic coatings
- ICA Iridea polyurethane
- ICA Acrylic, polyester, polyacrylic UV coatings.
Natural resins
- ICA BIO water-based coatings - made with recycled raw materials and through a production cycle with a lower environmental impact.
Natural oils
- Drying oils polymerize as they dry, on interacting with oxygen. Penetrates wood. Typically: Linseed oil
Raw linseed oil
- Linseed oil squeezed from flax seed and packaged with no additional additives or preservatives. This oil dries very slowly, taking weeks to fully cure. Its recommended uses are areas/objects where drying time is not a consideration.
- 2-3 coats suggested.
Double Boiled Linseed Oil
- Chemical Dryers (a combination of lead, cobalt and zinc in airplane brand product 2021) are added.