Is there anything that can be substituted for BLO in the BLO/CA finish to give a lighter color to the wood?
For most of the woods, the BLO is fine, but for some lighter woods I would prefer to avoid the darkening with BLO.
Thank you.
Larry
There is no simple answer to your question. The truth is that anything we put on a piece of wood will change its color, and all oils will darken the wood. Linseed oil will darken the wood more over time than Tung or Walnut, and body oils and grime from using the pen will turn the wood darker than anything we put on it.
The two biggest factors controlling how dark the wood will get from the oil in the finish are the wood species and the smoothness of the surface, because these determine the penetration of the oil into the wood. An open porous grain will absorb more oil finish and turn darker than a tight grain. A 600-grit surface will be more open to penetration than one that is sanded to 12,000 Micro-Mesh. For most species, I can't tell the difference between Linseed and Tung after sanding to 12,000 MM. That highly polished wood surface eliminates a lot of color problems.
If color is a real problem, I would leave out the oil and go with a pure CA glue finish.
I prefer using BLO with CA for several reasons. First, it works better for me than any other oil. Another reason is that I get a softer surface gloss than with straight CA, and this gets rid of the "plasticky" appearance and "feel" than some people object to. Finally, the finish itself is a little softer because of the oil that has been captured into the CA, and I like the way it wears and ages better than the harder plain CA finish with no oil.