Exposed wood surface treatment

What do people usually do with all the exposed wood, interior and exterior?  Paint it? Linseed oil? Polyurethane or some kind of clear coat?

Even though my wood stays pretty dry, I've noticed tiny boring insects, and I'd like to discourage them...

thanks

My father had a problem with Paul's description of the Wofati, when he watched the recorded tour and didn't hear any mention of treating the wood against insects. I have to admit, around here something like that probably last very long.

Borax works great as an all natural wood treatment, you can soak the wood or paint it on. It prevents Termites, carpenter ants, fungi and other issues untreated wood can experience.  
If you can soak the wood, it works the best since there is enough time for the boron in the borax soap to penetrate deeply into the wood.
You could even use a sprayer to apply, the trick is to get as deep a penetration as possible.


Redhawk.

P.S.  
You can use borax as a soil amendment too since it is biodegradable and a natural occurring product it will add boron to your soil with no side effects to you or the soil.

I plan on experimenting with adding a reservoir of borax to existing wood structures,by drilling holes and filling them with a Borax/Propylene glycol paste.
When/if water penetrates the wood, the Propylene glycol draws the Borax to the moisture.

William, Propylene glycol is a toxin, regardless of what form you get it in, it is also hydroscopic meaning it draws water to it, it does not move to water.
The second problem would be that it is a plasticizer, meaning it would turn the borax into a plastic, rendering the boron inert.
While I applaud you for thinking out side the box, this idea really won't work as you hope.

Redhawk

I fell in love with Williams idea immediately then Along Came Redhawk.

I suppose my idea of putting borax in linseed oil might suffer the same fate. Do you think that the borax would be rendered inert, when mixed with linseed oil? I think certain bugs would be turned off of the finish at least. But, this is mixing an acid and a base, so who knows what would happen to the beautiful linseed oil finish that I envision.

I'll bet you could mix really fine sawdust from black locust, into linseed oil. That should discourage mildew and fungus.

I use Western red cedar for my outdoor wood. It does fine without treatment and weathers to a silvery gray.

hau Dale,
Yes, unfortunately linseed oil won't be a good carrier for boron either.
For wood you want to protect and still have a nice linseed oil finish on make it a two step to finish.

I have some pine tables that I brush saturated with borax by keeping the wood wetted by brushing on coat after coat of borax solution.
Once I was happy with the depth of borax penetration I let the wood dry, then put on my oil finish.
It came out very nice and now I just put a fresh coat on every year (these tables are outdoors all year long).

Redhawk

Dale Hodgins wrote:I fell in love with Williams idea immediately then Along Came Redhawk.

I suppose my idea of putting borax in linseed oil might suffer the same fate. Do you think that the borax would be rendered inert, when mixed with linseed oil? I think certain bugs would be turned off of the finish at least. But, this is mixing an acid and a base, so who knows what would happen to the beautiful linseed oil finish that I envision.

I'll bet you could mix really fine sawdust from black locust, into linseed oil. That should discourage mildew and fungus.

I use Western red cedar for my outdoor wood. It does fine without treatment and weathers to a silvery gray.

I've only ever seen water used to help borax penetrate.

boric acid powder disolved in hot water and mixed with either peroxide or viniger works wonders for lots of stuff including mold. i used an old piece of towel to like wash wood with it and bugs that laned on it died and the mold that was growing dissappeared

got the boric acid powder from duda energy in alabama, it was the least costly place that delivers and 50lbs will probably last the rest of my life for a natural bug killer and other uses

Bruce, you do realize that boric acid is a poison yes? It will kill dogs, cats, and any animal (including humans) that manage to ingest it.

thats why i primarily use it for a wash to kill mold with, don't leave pots of it laying around or anything like that, some people sprinkle the powder around the outside of house or around baseboards for bug control, i don't do stuff like that, there are too many wild critters that are beneficial that could be effected, but as a wash it will protect wood from bugs and mold damage. from what i have read it's much safer than commercial pesticides and it works real well.

I would just like to add my two cents to this discussion on boric acid. Yes it is toxic. But you must look at the amount required to cause harm. It takes nearly "half a pound" of boric acid to kill a person who weighs 180 lbs. In comparison, it takes the same amount of table salt to kill the same person.

This is not to say that it is completely safe. DON'T EAT IT!

RV antifreeze, propylene glycol, is used in all sorts of food products and is determined safe for human consumption.

It absorbs water, yes, but it binds with the water making it non destructive to the wood.

I use these chemicals to make wood preservative.

WARNING!!! propylene glycol is basically an alcohol and has a flash point so use it at your own risk of fire.

What I do....

I place one gallon of propylene glycol in a stainless steel pot that is at least 3 gallon capacity.

I bring this to a "roll". I don't bring it to a heavy boil due to "flash".

I then add one pound of boric acid. stirring it in slowly to help it dissolve. It will not dissolve completely for a while so don't be alarmed.

Once it is pretty dissolved, I add one pound of 20 mule team borax. Stirring it in the same way.

At this point, there will be "grit" in the bottom of your pan. Just keep stirring until the bottom is no longer gritty.

Apply while hot, as it will get lumpy when it cools.

SO.... What does this actually do?

This mixture protects your wood from rot..... The Borax, (boron salt) protects your wood from fungus, mold, etc..... The boron protects your wood from insect damage..... and the propylene glycol protects the wood from water damage.

If you have ever seen "green board" on tv shows like Mike Holmes, this is the same stuff only home made. It is CLEAR, and you wont see it. The green board has a dye added so it can be easily identified as treated.

I used this while building my dome home. My house is now protected from the inside out against rot, bugs, and mold.

Until a few weeks ago, I did not know that I had invented a 100% organic Varnish in 2010. It is made out of Tabon-Tabon, a fruit that is like a nut and water. The Varnish is pasty to thick liquid, depending on how much water was added during the blending. Traditionaly Tabon-Tabon is used on the Philippines to seal Sombreros and Negos (flat baskets to seperate heavy from light things like rice hulls from rice grains) by just wiping the in halves cut kernel on the surface to be sealed. It was also used to protect wood. Because of the waterprove character of this varnish, I suggest to apply it on dry wood. The pasty consistence makes that cracks in the wood can be filled up. If nessesary apply it rwice. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=_4b1p7JkYqA[/youtube]

How do i make the tabon tabon wood protector?

What Christopher said about using tabon fruit sounds interesting.

Do you have access to tabon fruit?