Raw Lineseed Oil

[Patrick Chadwick]

I agree with previous contributors, that basically raw linseed oil is what you need. The snag is, it dries extremely slowly, which is why trade painters use boiled linseed oil, and a lot of the art material has added siccatives to promote drying. As jmoore pointed out, comestible linseed/flax oil is ideal, and a little goes a very long way.
The only point in which I would differ from the gist of what has already been posted, is that I would NOT use mineral spirits to thin real linseed oil. Get some natural turpentine and it will provide a better finish. The proof (or at least what I hope is a convincing demonstration) is here:

Treacle rifle before:
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Treacle rifle after:

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When you have acquired an adequate amount of the flax/linseed oil, put some in a glass bottle and leave in in a dark place for a decade or so. As the years go by, the oil develops the consistency of runny honey, and can be applied drop by drop with a linen rag dampened with natural turpentine. Then you can achieve a finish as shown above without using anything else - apart from a quantity of elbow grease!

Here are a couple of other stocks treated with the same matured natural linseed oil + natural turpentine method.
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I think this finish is thoroughly in "the spirit of the original" , and looks good as well!

Of course, if your butt looks like this, then you have a problem!

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