Alternative to Watch? Home safe?

[AlanS]

I have a 'home shop'...making furniture and small boxes.    I have, for years, used Watco...several coats....final coat put on with 400 grit...then...paste wax.   The finish is excellent and has great wear properties.     A few weeks ago, one of the rags that I was using got misplaced and when I found it...it was quite warm...I have no clue what would have happened if I had not located it.   THUS...I want to explore if there are finishes that can duplicate the success I had with oil and wax...but with LOW VOC and no flammability.    I see that Tried and True is one.   Anyone have any feedback?    I would like to work safely indoors.

[fredhargis]

I've never used Watco, but it's described as an oil/varnish mix. The warmness you found was the drying oil component (linseed oil I would guess) oxidizing...just the curing process.What you might try is ( for no flammability) is just a wiping varnish. It's cheaper to mix your own (50/50 varnish with MS) or you can buy it in a few different labels. (Check this article by Flexner). What I'm not sure of is whther it will meet your criteria on low VOC. The best to get that is to use a waterborne, but I don't know of any that are wipe on and they may not give you the appearance you're after. Back to wiping varnish. Varnish contains a drying oil, usually linseed oil, but the cooking process that makes varnish combines it with the resins and whatnot to eliminate the flammability problem. If you mixed some BLO in with the varnish/ MS, then you would be back to a form of danish oil and the oxidizing problem. Of course, you could just stick with Watco and keep a 5 gallon bucket with water to throw your cloths in.

[Snipe Hunter]

Rag can

[KC]

Not sure where I heard it, but if I used a lot of separate cloths/paper towels at one time, I put them in a bucket of water.  Next sunny day I'd lay them out outdoors to dry flat and then threw them away.   They still smelled, so not sure this proper either... but I never had any fires.

[bhh]

The story I heard was Watco-Dennis, the original mfr, got sued because some knucklehead burned down his house.   They then took it off the market.   Some time later, another company bought the rights and put it back on the market.  It's now made by Rust-Oleum, an RPM company.

The general rule is this reaction (linseed oil polymerizing) creates heat.  Heat causes the reaction to accelerate (general rule is doubles speed every 18 degrees F).  This causes more heat. (repeat)