Diluting Boiled Linseed Oil

[Les Symonds]

I've had a fair degree of success with Boiled Linseed Oil as a finish applied after turning green wood and allowing the pieces to air dry. I find that the sheen that I achieve after a few coats suits the organic nature of my 'natural' pieces, so I've been experimenting with thinning it. So far, I've just used meths, 50/50, which works well on very thin, freshly turned pieces, and gets absorbed readily and doesn't block the absorption of any remaining moisture.
I had a customer in my shop a few days ago, and he was so taken with a N/E plum-wood bowl that he wanted to buy it, despite the fact that it had only just been finished, and had only one coat of oil on it; he was adamant that he could oil it a few times when he got home. However, he got chatting to a wood-turner who lives near him and that wood-turner insisted that it should be BLO/Meths/White spirit, in a 50/25/25 mix.

Any thoughts on this?

Les

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Hi Les, this is a very old recipe, it used to be a 1/3 rd of each and we used to use it to clean antique items of accumulated dirt. When first mixed each layer is seperate but when you shake it up the mixture goes milky. It is a good way of applying a finish. But I wonder why all of this is needed as a few properly applied coats of Danish oil will give the same effect and is probably cheaper too?