: I gave this a whirl last night. The steel wool and alcohol remove the oil
: from the surface pretty well and smoothed out the wood in the bargain.
: When it was done and dry, it looked much more even than before.

: While I was rooting around in my painting supplies, I discovered a pint of
: boiled linseed oil and a some turpentine, so I decided to brew a 50/50
: mix, figuring it would make a thin, deep penetrating finish (hopefully).
: It worked great. The finish is even once again, though several more coats
: will be necessary before I'm done. The linseed oil/turps mix also has a
: rather interesting, sweet scent, which I rather like.

: I'm going to pick up some varnish on the way home tonight. I'll try mixing it
: with the linseed oil, per your suggestion.

: One general question about oil finishing products: Do they deteriorate in the
: can with age? The Watco I used was several years old and the can was more
: than half empty. I read last night that one should avoid exposing these
: oils to air until you use them, as they cure through oxidation. Any
: thoughts on this?

I think oil finish products are basicly mixtures of oil, varnish or polyurethane and thinner like mineral spirits so would have to assume due to evaporation of thinner would affect product in addition to oxidation.

I have not tried it yet, but have an oil finish recipe from Fine Woodworking article which you can mix up as required, you have the components. Then you are working with fresh material.
It's 3 parts polyurethane, 2 parts boiled linseed oil and 2 parts mineral spirits. Would think varnish would be substitute for poly. It's used same as commercial products. The author of this article sands dry thru 220 then ramps up thru 600 wet using the oil finish product to wet the surface, removing the residue before changing paper. Says it could take up to a week for oil to dry after sanding, then 3/4 up to 8 coats applied with a rag.

It looks like commercial products are all basicly variations of this, the major difference would be use of tung oil in Danish type finishes instead of linseed.
Some contain some japan drier.

Thought I'd mention the addition of thinner to your mix as could provide better penetration.