Happiness is a warm Tung

[Hank in WV]

Nothing magic about the marbles Russ. They just keep the air out.
If you find a frog out in all that snow, he's probably lost his marbles too.

[flintlockmdj]

Now I do like the story about the marbles and the frog.

I would like to hear more about the marbles keeping the air out. Is this done by volume displacement / replacement? Or is there something more mysterious that I am missing in this?

.....wonder where I could find a frog in all this snow?    

Uncle Russ...

All the marbles do is take up the space where the oil was and that pushes the remainder of the oil up to the top of the can eliminating air space and therefore minimizing drying area.

[flintlockmdj]

Fletcher I use heated linseed oil, in a water bath on an electric stove (do not use on a gas stove), to finish gun stocks the first and second coats.

[viking-sword]

Over the years I grew tired of displacing air space with marbles, (once my daughter discovered my marble stash I could never find enough of them for my needs anyway), so I got the bright idea of transfering the entire container into clean glass half-pint wide mouth mason jars. I also wrap the outside of the jar with duct or electrcal tape to block out light. Now, I have one of those foodsaver vacum sealers,the smallest one will work, but they make a mason jar lid vacum cup that  has a tube hookup from sealer to vacum cup and will remove all the air and seal the jar good. the rubber seal lids are fairly cheap and I have very little lose due to air exposure.Wes

[No Rod]

what a great idea! I would have never thought of that. Now I wounder how I'm going to sneak one of the vac lids out of the kitchen?  

[Three Hawks]

Over the years I grew tired of displacing air space with marbles, (once my daughter discovered my marble stash I could never find enough of them for my needs anyway), so I got the bright idea of transfering the entire container into clean glass half-pint wide mouth mason jars. I also wrap the outside of the jar with duct or electrcal tape to block out light. Now, I have one of those foodsaver vacum sealers,the smallest one will work, but they make a mason jar lid vacum cup that  has a tube hookup from sealer to vacum cup and will remove all the air and seal the jar good. the rubber seal lids are fairly cheap and I have very little lose due to air exposure.Wes

Sounds like a lot of fuss.  Clean pea gravel,  or that cutesy glass gravel size stuff they sell for aquariums would do it.  

Back in the dark ages when I was an apprentice boat builder, we used to fill the cans of calking compounds, bedding compounds and putties of various sorts with water as we used 'em up.  Kept the air off allowing the use of all the expensive gooey goodies in the can.  It only works with oil based stuff, though.   Too many of the majik potions on the market now seem to be dragon's blood and and the body fluids of albino wombats for that to work.  More's the pity.

Three Hawks

Three Hawks

[woodman]

A lot of the woodworking companies( Rockler,Woodworkers supply, etc) sell whats called bloxygon , A spray that as you close a can of finish you spray it into the can and it replaces the oxygen. Prevents polymeration in the can.
  Woodman