Boiled linseed oil is derived from flaxseed and is boiled until it polymerizes and oxidizes, causing it to dry quickly. It is often mixed with additives to speed up the drying process. It is commonly used as a paint binder or wood finish but is of lower quality than commercial products due to longer drying times and less protection.
Boiled linseed oil is linseed oil – which, like linseed oil, is derived from flaxseed, although it is treated differently and is not edible – that has been boiled until it polymerises and oxidizes, causing it to dry more quickly. When boiled linseed oil is named on an ingredients list, it might just be linseed oil, but more often it has additives including petrochemicals and metal-based dryers to speed the drying process to a satisfactory level. Boiled linseed oil is sometimes heat-treated linseed oil, which dries slowly and is very thick, making it difficult to work with. The two main uses of linseed oil are as a binder for paints and wood finishes. While it’s cheaper than similar petroleum products, it takes longer to dry and may not last as long.
Without any additives, boiled linseed oil is just that: linseed oil that has been boiled. This causes the flax oil molecules to polymerize — or become a long, repeating chain — and oxidize, introducing oxygen into the oil. This makes the oil thicker which means it can be used for more applications and causes it to dry quicker. Regular linseed oil takes many hours to dry, boiling is a necessity for many projects.
Most of the linseed oil listed in the products is loaded with additives or heat treated rather than boiled. Additives are more common, because this makes the flaxseed oil more useful. By adding petrochemicals and metal-based dryer catalysts, the linseed oil will dry even faster. This means that linseed oil will dry almost as fast as other commercial finishes.
Heat treated linseed oil is not very useful as a finish. When linseed oil is heat treated and not boiled, it undergoes the same polymerization process, but does not oxidize. This means that the oil becomes thicker than boiled oil but will take much longer to dry.
Boiled linseed oil is most often found as a paint binder or as a finish for wood. As a paint binder, linseed oil binds pigment to paint, especially in oily mediums. When used as a finish for wood, linseed oil is able to coat and protect the wood from weathering and other damage.
While this type of linseed oil is useful, it is considered to be of lower quality than commercial binders and finishes. The main reason is that the drying time is much longer than with other finishes, making it useless in commercial projects that require finishes to dry quickly. Linseed oil is also left out because it doesn’t offer the same protection as other commercial products; it is, however, about half as expensive.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
