Plan ahead. Ideal conditions for painting are warm, low humidity days followed by another 24 hours of similar weather. Good cure weather is just as important as good painting weather. Low temperatures and high humidity are a bad combination. Our paint may be applied in direct sunlight unlike conventional paints.
Our paint may be used on most clean, dry surfaces, interior and exterior. Do not apply to wood with moisture content above 15%. Removing all the previous paint gives the best, longest lasting results.

Choose your painting tools. Brush, roll and back-brush, or spray*. Use a quality med-stiff/stiff brush made for oil paint. Natural bristles work best. A short nap roller can be used to get the paint on the surface quickly but the paint should be back-brushed for even and consistent results. Spray only if experienced. If spraying, remember that linseed oil
paint doesn’t dry immediately when airborne so masking for overspray is a must to avoid a large mess. Wear appropriate PPE.

Pigment can settle to the bottom of the can and must be mixed back into the paint. Stir the paint thoroughly. If the paint has skinned over on the top, carefully remove it before mixing your paint. Raw wooden surfaces will require a saturating coat of purified linseed oil or a diluted “primer” coat of paint. A diluted primer coat is a
30/70 to 50/50 mix of linseed oil paint and purified linseed oil. Allow the primer coat to dry thoroughly. Two full days is recommended. Follow with two to three coats of full formula paint. Remember to apply in thin, even coats. Thicker coats will take much longer to cure with possible imperfections like surface wrinkling. Allow 24 hours between coats in ideal conditions, and longer in humid or cool environments.

Cleaning up. There’s no need to clean your brushes between coats. Suspend them in a container of Purified Linseed Oil. They will keep this way in between infrequent paint projects as well. To clean your brushes start with brushing off the excess paint. Plywood, carboard or rags work well for this. Most of the paint can be removed with this method. To avoid solvents, massage linseed oil soap or regular dish soap into the brush. Rinse with hot water. Repeat if necessary, and remember to use straight soap prior to water. Natural bristle brushes are sensitive to water so don’t soak them in water for any length of time.  Dry your brushes of water and for best results, store in a container with raw or purifed oil up to the ferrule. Linseed oil soap or dish soap will clean Linseed Oil Paint off of most surfaces.

Remember that oxidizing linseed oil on rags is at risk for spontaneous combustion. Soak your rags in a container of water until the end of your project then place the wet rags in a plastic bag and dispose of them. Rags can also be laid out flat to dry. Do not leave soiled rags crumpled in a pile.

Maintenance. The natural aging process of linseed oil paint involves the paint going matte with exposure to sunlight. The speed in which this aging takes place is dependent on climate region, weather conditions and sun exposure. The substrate is still protected by the paint but the coating will continue to dry out over time. This aging is slowed by cleaning the surface, applying purified linseed oil to the paint and wiping off the excess after 30 minutes. Oiling the paint adds more natural binder to the paint, once again holding the pigment in place.
This maintenance oiling is usually reserved for darker colors. For some people, the whiter shades tend to appear too yellow with oiling so recoating with paint is the best option.

*A NOTE ON SPRAYING

We've tried airless, HVLP and LVLP. We don't recommend these techniques simply because of the loss of product and the open time of Linseed Oil Paint. The overspray will create a mess. Smaller tips (mostly meant for light bodied clears and stains) aren't all that great for the heavier bodied Linseed Oil Paint. Larger orifices and fans just waste product. Keeping the mil thickness even is really important for our cured paint film and in some situations, film thickness is hard to gauge when spraying. Warnings aside, if you have a lot of experience and are good with a gun, you may want to try it. If you're using our product as a body undercoater, spraying may be a time saving method.