A hutch table made by my father in the 1960s with boiled linseed oil finish was damaged in a January 2025 California urban fire. It, and all other house contents, still emit a heavy toxic smell. Room surface tests have shown that lead and other metals are present.
I’ve successfully remediated a few other furniture pieces but they had been sealed with polyurethane (or similar). The visible surfaces of this hutch (all solid pine or oak) were finished in multiple layers of boiled linseed oil. The other surfaces (interior solid pine and drawer bottom plywood) are unfinished.
Am seeking remediation advice. How best to remove as much of linseed finish as possible - so that a fresh linseed finish can be applied? The hope being to remove most of the toxins and encapsulate the remaining.
For the rest: sealing the unfinished interior surfaces seems advisable but linseed in drawers is not recommended, right? So polyurethane there is the way to go?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. My father was better at this than I am!
@lettruthout Boiled linseed oil is a basic varnish (drying oil).
Scraping is inevitable. Sanding will not work as it will just clog the paper. There are chemical strippers but they tend to make an epic mess.
Just scrape with feeling. That’s why this particular scraper is good, it has the second handle to apply measured downpressure. Any small scratches you can then sand off or clean up with the card scraper.