Danish Oil on Cedar

dcibel

My girlfriend was kind enough to repaint my office space while I was out of the country last week. It desperately needed it, old dirty white room was a bit dull to hang out it. Now it is clean and fresh with the same colour palette as the rest of the house (sage green and tan with a hint of green). My office in in the basement, and has a cedar half-wall that was somewhat dinged up and whatever finish was on it looks fairly dull. A bit of time with a sander and some 80 grit, followed by 2 coats of Circa 1850 Danish Oil and it's looking quite nice.

While the Danish Oil is nice, it really stunk up the whole house and I imagine the smell will stick around for a few days. We have cedar walls in our entrance as well, and I was wanting to refinish them with this oil as well, but I am second guessing now because of the smell. Does anyone have any recommendations for a low odour finish, low lustre, amber-ish coloured similar to Danish oil. I was thinking maybe wipe-on shellac?

Pretty lame photos I know, but the room is a bit of a mess an still needs to be reassembled. I don't think I have a good "before" photo, but I took a photo after I sanded, and after the finish. It definitely has a lot more contrast between the light and dark grain now, which I like.

rjj45

Wow, that Danish oil really turned those on!
A little Googling showed Waterlox has a low-voc version of Tung.
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/waterlox-original-sealer-finish-350voc-gallon

dcibel

Waterlox doesn't appear to be readily available in Canada, but I can get Circa 1850 or Watco stuff no problem. I do have the Circa Tung oil, and loved it on the few projects I used it on. I bought the Danish oil for the walls thinking that it would last a bit longer and give a bit warmer colour, the entrance way is a stairwell and a pita to refinish so I only want to do that once.

I might do a little test spot with the Tung oil just to see how it is. It's smelly too but a little more pleasant than the Danish oil. Although the girlfriend doesn't seem to mind so much if I have to stink up the place for a couple days to refinish the entrance.

dcibel

I did some reading, apparently the Circa 1850 Danish oil is made with Tung Oil, not BLO as some other Danish oils. This is good, as BLO tends to darken with age a lot faster than Tung. It might be the ideal product for what I'm wanting, apart from the smell, but we might just have to deal with that for a few days to refresh the wood.

Here's a couple photos of the entrance, it's still cedar, just a different grade board without all the knots. The windows are "bottle bottom" amber coloured glass.

Gowa

I love the smell of cedar.

dcibel

Unfortunately this old stuff from 1975 does not smell anymore, and aromatic "cedar oil" to replenish the smell is hard to find and expensive, so I'm just trying to bring some colour back into it.

Billet

I use Howard Orange Oil to brighten up my hardwood floors, it looks good and smells nice also.

dcibel

I think I'm just going to use the Circa 1850 Danish Oil and deal with the smell. I really like how it turned out, and after a day of drying the remaining smell is of Tung Oil which is sweet and unoffensive. It's the initial varnish smell that is bad.