Making your own Exterior Stain

redlee · Jul 6, 2014

Anyone here ever make their own Stain, up here in Canada its getting "Very" hard to find oil based stains, Environmental controls.
I know the basic ingredients, Linseed oil, Solvent, Colour and a drying agent. Just wondering if anyone has actually made their own and if you have a good recipe?
And if it has been successful? Thanks

11 Bravo · Jul 6, 2014

If you are looking for something generic to preserve wooden fences and such, check with your lube oil distributor and see if you can get "shingle oil" in bulk quantities. We can get it in 5 gallon buckets or drums from both of our oil suppliers. It really isn't a stain, it is just a weatherproofing oil but it works good and is less expensive than buying exterior stain in gallon cans.

If you want some color in it you could try adding some regular wood stain to a bucket of the shingle oil and get some color. I never have tried to color it, but I can't see why you couldn't get something like that to work.

PeteM · Jul 6, 2014

There are some commercial oil/latex hybrid stains. If we can get 'em in California, I'd assume Canada as well?

The commercial products tend to have better adhesion, UV protectants, and longer life. Depending on your job, getting a couple years more before re-staining might justify the cost of a commercial product?

Bill D · Jul 7, 2014

Traditional Swedish red paint. Never even seen a building painted with one in real life. sounds expensive.
Bill D.

Falu red - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wood stain: origin of Moose Färg Swedish red wood stain - Paint for wood, Swedish paintMoose Färg

Greenwud · Jul 7, 2014

redlee said:
Anyone here ever make their own Stain, up here in Canada its getting "Very" hard to find oil based stains, Environmental controls.
I know the basic ingredients, Linseed oil, Solvent, Colour and a drying agent. Just wondering if anyone has actually made their own and if you have a good recipe?
And if it has been successful? Thanks

Yes, it was successful on a technical level but I'd be hard pushed to do it again. Just so much mess and not that much cheaper. Tung oil and wax are also added to exterior weathering finishes.

Surprised you can buy driers if the oil stain itself has been moved on by the greenwash.

Ray Behner · Jul 7, 2014

Built my house in '88. Sawed western red cedar siding from telephone poles on the mill. Used CW Flood...garbage. Next, used Sikkens.....garbage (only more costly). This guy stops in saying he would pressure wash and coat with a 10 year stain. Yeah, right. Gave it a try. It lasted 15 years. Had it done again 2 years ago to where it will now outlast me. He contacted a paint and solids chemist/engineer/whatever and came up with a propietary mix. VERY heavy on the solids with a slow drying carrier. He won't say exactly what's in it, but it lasts! It took 2 weeks to dry, so it really soaks in. That must be the key to it's longivity.
Maybe contact a paint chemist.
100_1262-1.jpg Photo by rbehner | Photobucket

Modelman · Jul 7, 2014

Don't use Linseed oil. This is the voice of experience speaking. Back when Linseed oil was the common binder for paint, the pigments and driers were mostly metal oxides or salts, and were toxic to organisms. These are now mostly unavailable, and the end result is the Linseed oil becomes food for mildew, and will turn black.

A dozen or so years ago, I was fed up with how the "environmentally safe" low VOC paint would handle, tired of having everything look like it was painted with a rake, and started adding Linseed oil to most things I was using for home maintenance painting. I also added it to some Olympic oil stain. I figured there had to be some mildewcide in the paint already. Wrong. Over the next five or so years, everything developed black streaks. I finally spent a whole summer washing the house with mildew remover, then repainting it.

Dennis

DDoug · Jul 7, 2014

Crude oil.

Pennsylvania crude is loaded with paraffin.

I drove south to "Pithole, Pa" to get a barrel
from a nice older gent (now deceased) from a
"20 minute well", that he recollected was nearly
100 years old.

Works nice, easy to apply, (pump up bug sprayer)
nice color on Hemlock barn siding.

adama · Jul 7, 2014

Probaly should not write this even on a public forum, but its probably the copper traces in the mine tailing's that worked so damn well on the Swedish falu red stuff. Copper use to be one of the key ingrediants in marine anti fouling paints. Chemical its very safe even enviromentaly, problem comes in harbours were the tidal flows weak and the copper builds up in the bottom sediments over time creating a zone that won't support any life.

Nothing that can attack wood grows on copper, Linseed oil by its self won't work, just like copper by its self won't either. Trick is to use the Linseed oil to shed the water, having enough copper (or other bio - fungicide) present to then prevent growth. Linseed - similar oil based paints exhibit nothing like the skin - coating forming that conventional paints do hence really make it a cinch to recoat them. I frigging hate std gloss paints and even the low build micro porous silkin type stuff builds a thick enough layer after 10+ years you have to do a full strip sand and recoat game.

redlee · Jul 7, 2014

Can you guys in the States still buy oil Based Stain?

henrya · Jul 7, 2014

Around the time that oil based stains got to be a little harder to find and pay for, I re-furbished a friend's deck. The work entailed replacing most of the horizontal wood surfaces and a new stairway, basically only keeping the old deck framing. When I finished it, I chose the then somewhat new Sherwin Williams --latex-- semi-transparent stain. When I did this I coated a scrap of the old decking (pressure treated southern yellow pine) and its been sitting on a planter on the sunny side of my house for about 6-7 years now. It still looks good. I would definitely use it on my own house or deck.

And pay attention to the comments about linseed oil. It'll be a horrible mess in no time. What was written above is spot on.

Sea Farmer · Jul 8, 2014

Are you guys talking about boiled linseed oil or raw linseed oil?

Local artist here does chainsaw sculptures and coats them with a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and oil-based varnish. I've seen some that have been outside for over 30 years and look fine, although I don't know if the owners have ever renewed the finish. All types of wood, he uses whatever the arborists give him, although he says his favorite is weeping willow.

redlee · Jul 8, 2014

Sea Farmer said:
Are you guys talking about boiled linseed oil or raw linseed oil?

Local artist here does chainsaw sculptures and coats them with a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and oil-based varnish. I've seen some that have been outside for over 30 years and look fine, although I don't know if the owners have ever renewed the finish. All types of wood, he uses whatever the arborists give him, although he says his favorite is weeping willow.

Boiled is not actually "Boiled" it has dryers added.

Marty Feldman · Jul 8, 2014

Everyone has a favorite. This is oil-based and readily available stuff

Wood Stain | Penofin Penetrating Oil Finishes and Wood Stain

that I used, with excellent results, on the woodshed I built. 40-50 bucks a gallon.

The other oil-based exterior product that I really like is Australian Timber Oil. With a name like that, how could you not? It's a bit thinner in consistency than Penofen and soaks in well on softwood.

adama · Jul 8, 2014

henrya said:
And pay attention to the comments about linseed oil. It'll be a horrible mess in no time. What was written above is spot on.

Yes and no, its a horrible mess, in just a few years, but its easy to pressure wash of the gunge that forms then a week later re apply to look just fine again. The same can not be said for some of the other products out there.

surplusjohn · Jul 8, 2014

when i bought my first house 35 years ago, I had a very ragged looking cedar fence I wanted to stain but it was going to take allot of stain for which I did not have cash for, so I made my own stain. I bought a bag of red oxide pigment, and a gallon of boiled linseed oil and 5 gallons of kerosene. mixed it up good and slapped it on. It looked good for several years, I dont remember any mold problems. perhaps the red oxide pigment helped. The kerosene was cheaper than mineral spirits, but I am probably lucky no one threw a cigarette at the fence. Wax emulsion is cheap and would probably take universal color [although a mineral color would be more permanent]. you may want to experiment with that. Beeswax disolved in thinner would be something else to look at.

jaybird88 · Mar 4, 2020

surplusjohn said:
when i bought my first house 35 years ago, I had a very ragged looking cedar fence I wanted to stain but it was going to take allot of stain for which I did not have cash for, so I made my own stain. I bought a bag of red oxide pigment, and a gallon of boiled linseed oil and 5 gallons of kerosene. mixed it up good and slapped it on. It looked good for several years, I dont remember any mold problems. perhaps the red oxide pigment helped. The kerosene was cheaper than mineral spirits, but I am probably lucky no one threw a cigarette at the fence. Wax emulsion is cheap and would probably take universal color [although a mineral color would be more permanent]. you may want to experiment with that. Beeswax disolved in thinner would be something else to look at.

what was the size of the bag of pigment?

wesg · Mar 5, 2020

jaybird88 said:
what was the size of the bag of pigment?

A Hogshead?

surplusjohn · Mar 5, 2020

This was 42 years ago, the red oxide pigment was for coloring concrete or mortar. Maybe 10 pounds? I think I first mixed it into the oil with a drill mixer then added the kerosene . Pretty messy but it did the trick. That fence was still there 20 years later when I drove by. Gone now.

Dumpster_diving · Mar 5, 2020

Raw linseed oil has no driers and by itself will always remain tacky/gummy.

Boiled linseed oil has driers.

For interior fine woodwork I use a mix of boiled linseed oil, oil-based spar varnish, and mineral spirits. Several thin coats each rubbed out followed by butcher's wax. Proportions aren't critical. More varnish for a more 'plastic' feel. Less for a nicer rubbed-out finish. More mineral spirits if the job permits more and thinner coats.

But only for interior not exterior.

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