The Best Oil to Use for Your Hardwood Wooden Gates
A hardwood wooden gate is never complete until you have given it a nice polish of wood oil (or treat it with another finish). Despite their protection to your timber not being as strong and effective as contemporary wood finish products as varnishes, wood oils are popularly used as natural wood finish to enhance the character of a wooden product. Wood oils are also relatively easy to apply and maintain compared to other types of wood finish.
It is important to firstly consider the different types of wood oils available, and their unique characteristics before deciding on the best finish to use on your wooden product. Here is a list of the different types of wood oils to choose from and their features so that you can choose an oil that provides the finish you’re looking for, as is right for your particular hardwood wooden gate.
Teak oil
Teak oil provides a more resilient finish and dries faster than other oils such as linseed oil. If you are reusing wood that already contains linseed oil, it is best to use that as a finish for your hardwood wooden gate rather than switching to teak. Otherwise, it is advisable to avoid using linseed oil for your project, especially when dealing with new wood and consider alternatives like teak oil which delivers a slight sheen. We specifically recommend teak oil for use on our iroko gates, and we apply this oil to our gates in the workshop before delivering them to our customers.
Tung oil
This is probably the most popular natural wood finish for hardwoods. Natural Tung oil is famous for its unmatched overall performance in the wood finish industry for over a century. It is a natural drying oil extracted from pressing the seed of the Tung tree. This type of oil dries as soon as it is exposed to the air meaning that it’s not only forms only a great protective barrier, but it does so quickly and dries fast.
The coat formed by application of the Tung oil is transparent, flexible and waterproof. Tung oil also gives better protection to the wood as it is not affected by mould like linseed oil, and is naturally non-toxic. It also has the ability to flex and accommodate expansion and contraction of wooden surfaces with changes in temperature and age. Tung oil comes highly recommended as the best natural oil for outdoor wood projects, so for keeping your hardwood gates looking beautiful, it’s a great choice!
For more advantages of Tung and Teak oil, check out this guide here on the two types.
Other finishes we recommend:
Osmo Wood Finish Oil
This wood finish oil comes in a range of colours to naturally stain your wood or to protect them from UV rays, whatever your preference. We treat all our oak gates and garage doors with this finish or the tung oil mentioned above, whichever our customers request, and would highly recommend this quality wood oil to treat your oak products.
Wood Oils Are Not For Softwood Wooden Gates!
Whilst the above wood oils and finishes are great for hardwood products, all our softwood gates are pressure treated and therefore cannot be oiled or varnished. Instead they require a breathable microporous stain such as Sadolin, Sikkens or Cuprinol.
Wood Oils to Avoid for Outdoor Use
One oil that is commonly used to treat wood but isn’t ideal for treating wood products outdoors is linseed oil – and here’s why.
Linseed oil
This type of oil takes at least two to three days per coat to dry, and requires multiple layers when using new wood (normally three to five coats to enhance the quality of your wood) which can make maintenance more laborious. However, boiled linseed oil only requires a day to dry, although they are not as good an option for outdoor wood projects such as driveway gates or garden gates since they don’t protect the wood against mould.
We hope you found this article useful, and if you’d like to learn more about keeping your gates looking pristine all year round check back again soon for more wood care tips from the experts!
Click here to find out about our wooden gates, from hardwood to softwood, and a beautiful range of designs you can choose from.