Raw Linseed Oil/ Flax Seed Oil - Tasty(?), Healthy, AND Good for Your Stock!

[jmoore]

Since my OLD quart can of RLO "cooked off" and won't flow any more, there was a need to buy some more. The paint store employee had no idea what linseed oil is(!!!! No foolin'!), so a prolonged search was made to find further mass quantities of this oil. Plenty of Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) available, some with "evil" additives, others "pure", but no RLO!

Remembering old Edward Horton investigations, and his sourcing of RLO from art supply shops, I found some good non-toxic gen-u-wine cold pressed oil. But price-y it is!:





Note that the English bottle is US$11 more than the Canadian for the same quantity!

About the same time I started a major clean of a '93 Oviedo Mauser, and wondered if they might have used a local oil, but unless they use olive oil on stocks that seemed unlikely. The research did bring up a reminder that "linseed" is another name for "flax seed" oil. Sooo...what might flax seed oil be used for? Turns out it's one of those "wonder" foods that is supposed to do all sorts of good things for you. "Whatever!" Still, that means SOMEBODY ought to be selling it locally, I was just looking in the wrong spots!

A trip to the local barber revealed a Whole Foods grocery store within walking distance, so after a 30 minute hunt through the multitude of olive, walnut, safflower, canola(rapeseed), and sesame oils, a whole section of Health Oils was found! Several varieties of Flaxseed oil included! Mostly "enhanced", but this one seemed tame enough:






Got it home and commenced some informal tests. :
1)Smell- same!
2)Color-The Flaxseed oil may be a touch lighter, but not by much over the Canadian Linseed oil. The English oil was darker, and had some sedimentation.
3)Texture- same!
4)Viscocity- The Flaxseed oil is more fluid, but it's quite possible that's entirely due to it's being fresher, no oxidation or slow polymerization has yet occurred.
5)Taste- The linseed oil is a little "stonger" but otherwise tastes the same as the flaxseed oil. Both are good on greenbeans, BTW! Who'd a thunk it? Did not try the English linseed oil, as there is some apparent sedimentation going on in the bottle. Probably MUCH older, given that it's more than twice as expensive as the Canadian product.
6)Wood test- nothing definitive yet, but it LOOKS the same going on. Both penetrate much better than BLO.

Best part?- Price! The food grade oil is MUCH cheaper than the artsy stuff. (Both are FAR more than the old quart can variety, but it's unobtainium.) ~US$6.99 for 236ml of Flaxseed Oil vs. US$6.99 and $17.99 for 75ml of Raw Linseed Oil.

So, does anybody know of any "down sides" to using "flaxseed oil" versus "Raw Linseed Oil"? (Disregarding the "enhanced" uber-healthy versions of flaxseed that is.)

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