The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Linseed oil/paint thinner rust preventitive

Talked to an old man today about some tools he had hanging in his barn. He told me he started doing this back in the 30's in the oil field after removing rust. He said mix 50/50 linseed oil and paint thineer and brush on. I tried it today on some stuff I pulled out of a phosphoric acid bath. It dried quick in the Texas sun and it looks just like the metal on the new brake shoes. Anybody used this before as an alternative to clear coat laquer. I have had no luck with clears.

Linseed oil forms a film much like oil based paint. It cures by absorbing oxygen from the air which starts a polymerization reaction. Boiled linseed oil will cure much faster than raw linseed oil. I doubt you really need 50% thinner, just enough to make it easy to brush on. In fact it will work without the thinner but may be slower drying due to the thicker film. I haven't had much occasion to use it on metal parts but frequently use it on wood tool handles.

yesah, he said he just coated everything. He was bragging about his hammers and shovels having the original handles. I admit I kind of like the smell... not that I was smelling his tools.

Boiled linseed oil thinned with mineral spirits has been a favorite gunstock finish for at least 200 years. The US military used it on all their gunstocks up until the mid 1950's when they switched to Tung oil for some reason. Of course, all the stocks are plastic now.
Jerry

Working in a shipyard on the west coast there is a certain amount of moisture in the air, I have used a concoction of engine oil and thinner to coat piston liners for main engines as soon as they came out of the automated steam cleaner this kept the rust at bay otherwise within minutes there would be evidence of rust. I used this on many of my stripped body panels over the winter and it seemed to hold up against the cancer, a wipe with thinner and steel wool brought everything back to a nice shiny surface for paint prep