Here is a step by step guide for inserting photos into a blog:

1. Under "Create content" in the side bar on the right of your screen, click on "Image" and a new page will open.

2. In the "Title" box type in a name for your photo.

3.Below that, click on "Browse" to search for your image on your computer.

4. Once you found your image, click the "Open" box.

5.There is no need to enter anything in the "Body" box. Next click "Save" at the bottom of the page. Your image will show on screen and is now be stored on the blog's database.

Steps 1 - 5 is necessary to convert your image into a language the blogsite works with and to store it on the blogsite's database. Next, let's do a blog and insert our photo:

6. Under "Create content" in the side bar, click on "Blog entry" and a new page will open.

7. Type in a title for your blog.

8. in the next box, choose a category and click on it. This is required.

9. Write your blog in the next box.( If you only want to post your photo, there is no need to write anything.) Wherever the cursor rests is where your photo will be inserted. If you have written some stuff, hit the space bar a few times to move the cursor down.

10. Click on "Add Image" below the blog entry box.

11. A new screen will open showing your images. Click on the photo you want to insert.

12. Again a new screen will open. In the "description" box, you can type in a caption for your photo if you want. Otherwise, ignore everything and click the "Insert" box at the bottom of the screen.

13.Now, some funny looking text will appear in the blog's "Body" box. This is your photo in website language!

14. To see what it will look like, click on "Preview" at the bottom of the page.

15. If you are happy with the result, hit "Save". Otherwise you can scroll down and fiddle with your text in the blog's "Body" box.

16. Done! It sounds complicated but once you've done it is relatively straight forward.
Any problems, don't hesitate to Email me for help: info@woodspark.co.za

The term scraper brings to mind a tool for cleaning old paint from wood. That is certainly what you will get when asking for a scraper at the local hardware shop. It seems a poor term for a tool capable of the finest of cuts and with great accuracy. I would say it is an indispensable tool in any decent woodworking shop. I will also say that it is a forgotten tool in this era of power tools where everyone will have you believe that Ryobi is the answer to all you problems!

The term is something of a misnomer, for when properly sharpened, the scraper actually cuts rather than scrapes, much like a chisel or plane, slicing of paper thin shavings of wood. As useful as the scraper is, few people understand how to sharpen and use this very simple, much underrated tool.

Scrapers can come in various thicknesses and sizes but the sharpening method I will describe is the same for all. A standard scraper will be a rectangular piece of steel, about 60mm x 125mm and less than 1mm thick. For curved surfaces thin flexible steel that will conform to the curve is better. The gooseneck scraper has a variety of curves that can be used on tight curves or moldings. I keep a number of scrapers around for different purposes.

A rectangular scraper consists of four edges and two faces. The cutting is done by a small burr formed at the juncture of a face and an edge. Such a juncture is called an arris. The quality of this burr and the cut it makes is entirely dependent on the quality of the intersecting faces.

How to sharpen a scraper:

To sharpen the scraper, first dress the two long edges with a single cut mill file. Clamp the scraper vertically in a vise and draw the file length ways along the edge, trying to achieve a straight edge that is also square to the sides. The arrisses should feel sharp to the touch. If not, keep filing until they do.

Next polish or hone the faces on a flat oil stone. I use a medium India stone followed by a fine, hard finishing stone – a black Arkansas in my case. Water stones or Diamond stones (if you can afford them) will also do the trick. Be careful to keep the scraper flat on the stone or you’ll round the arris.
Then, polish the long edges of the scraper by holding it vertically between both hands and rubbing it to and fro on the stones. Hold it diagonally across your stone to prevent uneven wear! Again, the arrises should feel sharp to the touch.

A burnisher is required for the next step. It must be round, smooth and of a harder steel than the scraper. Many things will work well as a burnisher; the round shaft of a screwdriver, the back of an old gouge. I made a good one by fitting a turned wooden handle to a buffed up pushrod from an engine. Whatever you use, a little lubricant between scraper and burnisher helps a lot. A drop of oil is fine, or just rub the burnisher across your nose –it really does work!

Two steps are required to make the burr; raising the burr and turning it. To raise the burr, lay your scraper flat on the edge of a firm surface, hold the burnisher just a few degrees off horizontal and stroke it firmly back and forth along each arris. You should hear a loud tick as the burnisher goes off the end of the scraper with each stroke. What this does can be seen under magnification, an ear will protrude from each edge that has been burnished. The drawing shows an exaggerated cross section.

Next the burr need turning. There are different methods but this is how I do it. Clamp the scraper vertically in a vice, place the burnisher on the far end of the edge and firmly pull it toward you with downwards pressure. Two or three firm strokes should do, first at 90 degrees and then with the handle lowered slightly at around 85 degrees to the side of the scraper. It is important to hold the burnisher firmly and make long slicing strokes which extend over the whole blade. This will keep the edge smooth and prevent nicks or grooves. Taking several passes will turn a large burr which will take a large shaving. However, a large burr takes longer to turn and I’ve found them to be more brittle and they degrade rapidly. I prefer a small burr; it is less work in the long run.

Why scrape, rather than plane or sand?

Scrapers are commonly used to remove a fair amount of wood from a surface. A plane can easily tear interlocking or wavy grain but the scraper can manage nearly any awkward grain. They remove material quickly and leave a finished surface. No need to work your way through different grit sand papers!

Some notes on technique.
Flat surfaces.

To scrape a flat surface, hold the scraper nearly perpendicular and push or pull it to take wide shavings. To maintain the flatness of a large surface, like a tabletop, it is essential to cover as large an area as possible with one stroke of the scraper and to introduce as little curvature to the cutting edge as possible. A curved scraper will make a concave cut, the more you curve it, the more the concavity. Good for some applications but not for the tabletop! To avoid curvature, hold the scraper with your fingers behind the cutting edge and thumbs in front. Maintain a constant angle to the wood, as close to perpendicular as possible and draw the scraper towards you, attempting to produce a shaving almost the full width of the scraper. Proceed across the surface with a series of long and slightly overlapping strokes. I prefer to pull the scraper but you can push it too.

Unlike a plane, the scraper has no sole and may therefore ride up and down over hard and soft areas and create ridges on the surface. To avoid this, the scraper should be slightly diagonal to the direction of the wood grain. Alternate the diagonal direction every other stroke so that the edge will only take material from the high spots, leaving a flat surface.

For a fine, finishing cut, a small, sharp burr is needed. If the scraped surface isn’t good enough, re-stone the scraper and turn another burr. Obstinate grain may require that the angles diagonal to the grain be increased to produce a skewed cut.

Concave or convex surfaces.

Depending on the curves, use a flexible rectangular scraper or a gooseneck scraper. By springing the scraper between fingers and thumb, the cutting edge can be made to conform to a variety of curves. As the curve of the scraper tightens, the cutting angle is inevitably lowered. As the scraper is lowered, the burnishing angle of the burr must also become more astute to maintain the proper cutting angle of the burr to the wood. You may need to experiment with various angles at first, but you will get the feel of it with experience.

Resharpening.

As soon as the scraper no longer takes a shaving, it is time to resharpen. You want shavings, not dust! It is possible to re-turn a burr with the burnisher several times before having to go back to the file and stones. Burnish the face first, and then turn the burr. When the burr becomes ragged and leaves marks on the wood surface, it is time to go back to the beginning of the process.
Remember, putting of sharpening because of laziness, ultimately costs more time and energy!
As with all edge tools, the joy of using a sharp scraper is well worth the effort of taking the time to sharpen.

The million dollar question: Where do you get a scraper?

Your local hardware shop probably doesn’t even know what a cabinet scraper is. I doubt you could buy one in SA, maybe at Hardware Centre in Cape Town or Johburg.
Don’t despair, they are easy to make. First find an old handsaw. Any type or brand will do. I always see sorry examples of handsaws in pawn shops, about the only thing they are good for is to make scrapers with. Use one of those thin steel cutting discs on a baby grinder to cut a number of different sizes and shapes from the handsaw blade. After filing the edges straight and square, you are good to go! I have gathered a good collection of pretty decent scrapers this way.

HAPPY SCRAPING!

However good your table saw is, the cut will only be as good as the blade fitted. Let’s look at important points and how to choose the right one for the job.

In a previous blog I talked a little about the versatility of the table saw and how to operate it safely. To realize its full potential the right blade must be fitted. Condition of the blade is also important. Blunt, chipped or missing teeth, a warped plate and resin build up will drastically reduce the accuracy and effective cutting power of your saw.

TYPES OF BLADES.

I’ll only look at Tungsten Carbide Tipped (TCT) Blades. High Speed Steel blades are rare these days, although they still have a place in specialist applications where their much thinner kerf and greater initial sharpness outweigh their disadvantages.

FLAT TOP (FC)

Flat top or raker blades have their teeth ground square across the top, giving a chisel shape to each tooth. This pattern, with its chopping rather than slicing action, gives good waste clearance and fast cutting with the grain. It is most suitable for ripping, used for cross cutting it will produce a poor finish and severe tear out.

ALTERNATE TOP BEVEL (ATB)

ATB blades have their teeth ground at alternate bevel angles, one tooth angled one way, the next the other way. This gives a slicing action to both sides of the blade, making it the most suitable for cross cutting.
ATB blades with extreme bevel angles are used for clean cutting of veneers, laminates and melamine faced boards. They produce a superb finish and are especially good for mitering. Their downfall is that they wear very quickly.
Combination blades are also available which feature both ATB and FT tooth patterns. The idea is that they should give a good finish together with fast waste clearance. In practice they don’t perform noticeably better that an ATB blade with a modest bevel angle. They will leave a flat bottomed kerf when used for grooving though.

TRIPLE CHIP

These blades have teeth which are ground in 2 alternate patterns: first is an FT grind with chamfered corners, second a lower profile standard FT grind. The chamfered tooth cuts the centre of the kerf whilst the following raker tooth cuts the sides. The whole purpose of this pattern is to minimize tear out, especially on melamine faced board. These specialized blades are generally produced with zero or even negative rake angle to resist wear from abrasive materials such as MDF.

CLARIFYING TOOTH ANGLES.

The Rake Angle
is the angle at which the face of each tooth is ground, measured against the radius of the blade. As a general rule, the greater the rake angle, the faster and rougher the cut. Thus a deep ripping blade might have a rake of 18º to 20º, a general purpose blade around 15º, a good cross cut blade about 10º and a specialized blade for melamine board anything from 5º to -7º.
The Side Clearance Angle
is the angle at which the side of each tooth is ground, measured against the radius of the blade. As a general rule, the shallower the angle, the finer the finish. It also means more friction and therefore heat, so a shallow side clearance angle is only worth using on end grain and where finish is critical.

KERF WIDTH

A typical kerf width is between 3mm and 4mm. Blades with a narrow kerf width of as little as 2mm to 2.8mm are available. The advantages of a narrow kerf are:
Less power required to drive the blade, therefore improved performance from small machines.
Less waste produced, important when cutting valuable exotics, less of your money on the floor!
The drawbacks are faster wear and a greater risk of heat build up. Too much heat can distort the blade’s plate – which is also thinner than that of a standard blade.

NUMBER OF TEETH

Circular saw blades are graded in terms of their total number of teeth. The only way to compare will be between blades of the same diameter. I will assume a blade of 250mm (10”) for this example. It is the most common size for table saws.
General rules are:
Fewer teeth means faster cutting but the trade off is a rougher finish.
The thinner the material being cut, the more teeth are required. More teeth mean a better finish, but a slower rate of feed. You get the idea!
RIPPING – When fast ripping, clearance of the sawdust produced (in the form of bulky shavings, relatively speaking) becomes a major issue. Good clearance will be obtained with a large gap between teeth, allowing a deep gullet. So a dedicated 250mm ripping blade should have no more than 24 teeth. Some rip blades have a hump behind each tooth. This is not a fashion statement, it is a chip limiter. Its purpose is to restrict the amount of cut. The hump not only saves wear and heat build-up, it also reduces the risk of kickback from a blade jammed in the cut.
CROSS CUTTING - Fine cross cutting demands many teeth to sever the wood fibers cleanly. The waste is a fine dust which is easy to clear so it isn’t a problem. For relatively thin material, 96 teeth will give good results, medium thickness around 80 teeth and heavier sections, 60.
GENERAL PURPOSE – For general purpose cutting between above two extremes, the following rule of thumb is useful:
With the blade set to just clear the thickness of the material, it should have no less than two and no more than five teeth in the cut.

A FEW NOTES ON QUALITY:

Sawblade quality starts with the plate itself. However well the teeth are ground, if they are wobbling about on the edge of a buckled plate, what is the point! Good plates are roller tensioned, visible as a faint ring on the plate at about three-quarters of its diameter. Not easily found at your local hardware centre, I know! A good plate is also dead flat. This is easily checked with the blade of an engineers square or similar.

The second most important factor is the quality of tooth grinding. This is less easily checked, although a magnifying glass will reveal some truths. Whilst peering at that tooth, have a look at the brazing – this should be smooth and free of pinholes. Lumpy brazing is a bad sign!

Carbide quality is hard to check. If the manufacturer talks of “micrograin” and quotes a grade number, you should be reassured.

The arbor hole is a vital element as a misaligned, oversized, or eccentric hole will ruin a blade’s performance. It is something that is often overlooked but is a good sign of quality: Good holes are reamed to exact size, a process that leaves a smooth burnished finish. AVOID blades with sharp burred holes. Any indication that the hole has been punched out is cause for instant rejection.

As always, price and brand name is normally a good indicator of quality – you do get what you pay for, most of the time!

RECOMMENDATION – WHICH BLADE?

If you are a specialist, you will have special requirements but for the average guy at the bench, it is easier to suggest a basic requirement. Assuming a 250mm (10”) blade, your first buy should be a 40 to 48 tooth ATB blade with a 5 - 10º bevel. This blade will cope with most work and will be your general purpose workhorse.

Add the following as they are needed: If you use a reasonable amount of rough sawn hardwood, a 24 tooth FT ripping blade will prove useful.
For fine cross cutting, joint-cutting and board work, keep an 80 tooth ATB blade with a 10 - 15º bevel nice and sharp.
If you want to cut a lot of melamine board, then the clean cut and wear resistance of a 80 tooth, negative rake, triple chip blade is you weapon of choice.

Remember, it is better to have a limited number of quality blades than a stack of cheap ones!

HANDY HINT

Resin build up on the blade will drastically reduce its performance. Clean your blades often. I use oven cleaner in a spray can. Spray the circumference of the blade with the white foam and let it soak for a while before scrubbing with an old tooth brush. Then wash off under running water and dry with the towel you stole from the bathroom! A second treatment might be necessary for stubborn deposits.
You won’t believe the difference it makes; feels like you just fitted a new blade!

FINALLY….
Next time you go to the hardware shop, ask the “expert” some informed questions….Then watch for faces that drop and listen to the ummms and ahems!!

Recently I had to show someone his way around a table saw. It got me thinking about sharp blades and shortened fingers….

The table saw is at the heart of any woodworking shop – every piece used, whether solid timber or sheet material, goes through it at least once – and will therefore be in use for more of the time than any other single piece of equipment. Unless you are a turner or scroll sawyer!

Consider the versatility of this machine: it is initially used to rip raw timber, can be used for cross cutting, it will mitre, bevel, groove, rebate, tenon, fingerjoint, house and otherwise joint components. Beyond these basic uses lie hundreds of specialist operations which can be carried out with ingenuity and some jigs. In this way even cove moldings can be formed for example.

The table saw’s design is fundamental and normally has only one exposed moving part – the blade. Although simple, I have seen more fingers removed on these than on any other machine in the shop. This might be due to its simplicity, inviting a lack of care and a disregard for safety that invites the machine to bite back – which it can do with alarming ferocity.

With this in mind, the following few simple guidelines will increase your chances of keeping all 10 fingers:

DOS AND DON'TS:
DO ensure the sawblade is sharp; the resulting cut will be more accurate. A blunt blade will make pushing wood through the saw difficult, increasing the chance of a mishap. It will also give a bad finish and might cause burning of the material.

DON’T rush – take the time to set up properly.

DO wear safety goggles, dustmask and earplugs. I don’t wear any earplugs and 20 years later, I can’t hear my wife complaining any more….

DON’T leave clutter on the bed of the saw. This includes offcuts, tape measures and cups of coffee!

DO use a push stick when running wood through the saw. It is an obvious extension to your hands that won’t drip blood if it accidentally touches the blade. It is easily made out of an offcut – ensure the notch is sufficient to hook over the end of the wood for a firm downwards hold. I have several hanging at the ready on the side of my saw.

DON’T wear loose clothing and if a stranger to the barber like me, tie long hair back and out of the way.

DO set the blade as far above the timber as possible so the cutting action is in a downwards direction against the bed – a blade set to low will tend to force the timber back towards the operator. Too high a blade exposes more teeth for potentially taking fingers so try to find a balance, keeping all this in mind! If possible stand slightly to one side of the cutting line so that if the timber does come shooting back, it won’t ruin your manly (or womanly) parts.

DON’T work with the table saw when tired, unfocused or in a hurry. Every single accident I’ve had has been with at least one of those factors in play. Mostly at the end of the day when I’m tired or rushing to meet a deadline…I still have all 10 although some of them are a little crooked and scarred!

DO make sure the fence is locked down firmly. Recently I was cutting some shallow grooves in a batten. I didn’t lock the fence down (unfocused!) and as I did the cut, unbeknown to me, the fence moved. I managed to cut neat grooves in two of my fingers! Lady luck was on my side, the blade only protruded about 3mm above the bed at the time!

DON’T pull out those loose slivers that sometimes lodge themselves beside the blade until the machine has stopped running.

DO make sure that the OFF switch is very accessible and easily switched off. I can switch off my saw with my knee, thus I can keep my eyes and hands on the table. Fitting a homemade wooden hinged paddle can facilitate this.

Guards and riving knifes.
Although a lot gets said about blade guards and riving knifes in safety circles, the reality is that the table saws in most shops don’t have these, for various reasons. The main function of the riving knife is to prevent the wood from binding or pinching the blade. If you don’t have one or can’t fit one, have a shallow wooden wedge handy. If the wood you are cutting moves and starts binding the blade, shove it into the cut behind the blade to force the pieces apart until the cut is done.

Cross cutting.
Never, ever, cross-cut so that the off cut is trapped between the blade and the fence. Always dimension timber from the free side of the blade using a stop on the cross-cut fence and clear off cuts with the push stick immediately.

Follow these guidelines and not only will your chances of finger survival increase but the accuracy and quality of cuts will also improve. Nuff said!

A hand-rubbed boiled linseed oil finish.

Preparing the wood surface for an oil finish is considerably more time consuming than for any other kind of finish. Sand the wood very well, working through progressively finer grits. Final sanding is done by hand with 320-grit paper.
There are two schools of thought on increasing oil penetration. One way is to heat the boiled linseed oil to around 40 degrees Celsius before applying it to the wood.
An alternative is to thin the first coat about 50% with paraffin or mineral turpentine.
Either way, apply a heavy coat that is allowed to soak into the wood for up to four hours before the excess is rubbed off with clean rags or paper towels. Be sure the excess is rubbed of well. It will get sticky if you let it sit too long. Before following up with a second coat 24 hours later, lightly sand with 400-grit paper. A third coat can be applied.
Let the last coat dry for at least 48 hours before removing dust with Scotchbrite or fine steel wool. Apply a thin coat of Cobra floor polish or other wax, and buff. Periodic waxing will renew the luster.

A wet sanded oil finish
Some woodworkers prefer to do fine sanding while the surface is drenched in oil. The wood’s pores get filled with a slurry of wood dust and oil. With a lot of work and patience, a flawless finish can be achieved.

Sand the wood surface well, working through progressively finer grits. When the surface has been taken to 220-grit, apply a coat of oil and rub it in with 220-grit wrapped around a cork or foam sanding block. When you feel the sandpaper begin to slip instead of biting, you know that it’s almost finished its job. Apply more oil and sand with 320-grit, then repeat the process with 400-grit and even 600-grit, if you want to go all out.

The wet sanding process produces a slurry of wood dust and oil which is forced down into the wood pores. Wipe the slurry off the surface before beginning each new grit, but leave the 600-grit slurry on the surface until it begins to thicken. Then wipe the wood across the grain until it is almost dry before setting the piece aside for the remaining slurry to dry completely. This will take a few days.
When the wood is dry, remove the slurry film with fine steel wool, working with the grain. Do this to remove all oil residues from the surface. If the surface quality is uneven, with dull spots, apply another coat of oil and work it in with 600-grit paper. Wipe off the excess with paper towels and let this coat dry. If you are determined to completely fill the pores, you can wet sand again to build up slurry, let it dry again on the wood, repeating the whole process until the surface is flawless.

An oil and varnish finish.

Instead of waxing an oil finish, another option is to apply an oil-and-varnish mix. Lots of people have different ways of mixing and applying the blend. One mix is 3 parts polyurethane varnish (like Nova 17), 2 parts boiled linseed oil and 2 parts mineral turpentine. This mix is applied with a rag. Wipe each coat clean and almost dry, allow drying time between coats and apply at least 3 coats. There is no need to sand between coats, unless there is a minor imperfection that you overlooked earlier.
Another mix I heard of recently is one part Woodoc 10, one part boiled linseed oil and one part mineral turpentine. I haven’t tried this one yet!

I guess the expression “hand rubbed oil finish” does have something romantic about it. It brings to mind a picture of the master craftsman practicing an ancient technique to reveal the beauty of fine woodworking.

Oil is my favorite finish. It penetrates the wood, creates depth and allows the figure to shimmer. I consider oil as the only finish that allows wood to look natural whilst imparting the rich color characteristic of freshly surfaced wood. One of its biggest advantages as a finish is its simplicity, both in terms of its subtle appearance and ease of application. For those who view finishing as a necessary evil, the wipe-on, wipe-off modern oil finish is perhaps as close as you can come to not finishing at all.

Oil finishes has come a long way since the old days. The old timers who taught me about woodworking rubbed in many coats of boiled linseed oil following the “rule of one”: Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, and once a year for life! Off course this process will still produce an excellent finish, but “modern” oils are available that requires less effort.

Oil mixtures:
Commercial products like Rustin’s Danish Oil are a mix of oil, resin, driers and a solvent. The natural oils most commonly used are linseed oil, pressed from flaxseed or tung oil, from the nut of the Tung tree. There are many other natural oils but linseed oil and tung oil are readily available.
Resins are solids and add bulk to the oil mixture. In many cases they are the same solids that are used in varnishes. The most common ones are modified alkyds and phenolic resin. Adding resin to the oil results in a harder finish, one that builds film thickness quickly, because the solids fill the pores of the wood more readily than oil alone.
The solvent dissolves all the components of the mixture, reduces its viscosity and makes it easier to apply. It also increases its ability to penetrate the wood. The most common solvent is mineral spirits.

Curing
Most oil mixture includes driers, heavy-metal salts that speed up the drying process. Natural linseed oil and tung oil will dry when exposed to air, but raw oil will take weeks to dry. By adding driers this time is reduced to hours. The driers sometime referred to as “Japan driers”, include zinc, cobalt, magnesium and lead.
Another method used to shorten oil’s drying time is polymerization. Most commercial tung oil products are partially polymerized. The process involves heating the oil, causing a percentage of its molecules to bond, which increases the oil’s viscosity and shorten its drying time.
The term “boiled linseed oil” is a misnomer; it is not boiled at all! Instead it has driers added. Metal salts are added with the help of a chemical catalyst. The reference to boiled is probably a throwback to an early process in which the oil was heated to help dissolve the metal salts.
Boiled linseed oil alone makes a credible finish and there are many purists who will use nothing else.

Application
Oil’s most alluring feature is that it is easy to apply. You simply wipe it on, allow some time for penetration and solvent evaporation, then wipe off the excess. It is almost impossible to get bad results. The amount of oil applied, the speed, pattern and method of application have virtually no effect on the result. You don’t even need a dust free room to get excellent results!
However, because oil don’t hide surface imperfections very well, you must sand to a much finer grit than necessary for surface-coating finishes like varnish. Final sanding should be at least 220 grit, but it may need to be 400 or even 600 for fine grained woods.
Depending on the wood species, the first and even second coat tends to be completely absorbed into the wood’s surface and act as a sealer. Yellow wood will absorb oil easily and quickly; Iron wood will absorb almost nothing. Once the wood is saturated with cured oil, successive coats will start to form a film on the surface. You can get an effect that ranges from a barely perceptive finish in a single coat to a glossy film which can take from two to five coats. Because oil is a reactive finish (once it dries, subsequent coats will not dissolve it), a dried oil finish can be recoated by wiping or brushing, without fear of disturbing the dried layer.
The single most major mistake you can make with oils is neglecting to wipe off the excess before the oil dries. This will result in a sticky mess which must be scrubbed off with steel wool and elbow grease! Neither lacquer thinner nor acetone is a true solvent of cured oil. About the only thing that will dissolve the oil film is methylene chloride, the active ingredient in paint strippers.
A common problem with oil finishes is “bleeding”. On large pore woods, such as oak, there is a tendency for the extra oil trapped in the pores to leach out and form shiny spots on the wood’s surface. This generally only occurs on the first coat or two, until the cured oil seals the pores. Bleeding can most often be avoided by applying the oil early in the day, then rewiping the surface every hour or so until the leaching stops. If the shiny spots are left to harden, there is no way to remove them, except by sanding with 400 grit paper.

Disadvantage
Whilst oil’s simple nature is its advantage, it is also its downside. An oil finish is an inherently weak finish, which wears off easily and has a very low moisture-vapor resistance. Because oil is largely absorbed rather than becoming a surface film, the wood is given very little protection from abrasion or staining. Also, because of its low moisture-vapor resistance, water molecules can penetrate easily, same with alcohol or other liquids. This makes oil a poor choice for wooden objects used in wet or humid conditions.

Repairing and refinishing
Oil’s reactive drying properties and forgiving application qualities makes it a finish that is extremely repairable. A white water ring or damaged spot can be lightly sanded or steel wooled before new oil is applied. Due to its inability to redissolve itself, the freshly applied oil will not affect the undamaged finish in the surrounding area and will blend the spot almost invisibly, even if the finish is years old. So, with oil’s reparability comes a responsibility for maintenance. Ideally, an oil finish should be rejuvenated every year or so, depending on the amount of wear it is subjected to.

Warning!
Oil soaked rags or paper towels are ready prey to spontaneous combustion; if left in a pile, they can heat up and burst into flames on their own accord!
Hang the used rags up to dry or immerse in a bucket of water.

In Part 2 I will look at different oil finishing techniques.

I need more info on using oil finishes on wood. Can someone please help?

Danish Oil - man, I love the stuff!! Easy to apply, no worries about dust, dries quickly, no fart assing around with sprayguns or brushes, no worries about goggas and what not getting stuck in your finish.

Best of all, what a finish! Doesn't look plastic, doesn't look on top, doesn't shine too much. Brings out the true beauty of wood!!!