Peter, Once again, a great review. I like to use oil finishes as they have a good shelf life once open and are versital in that they look good on almost any wood, whether hard or soft. They also show off interesting imperfections such as a crazy grain or knots. They are just about fool (that's me) proof for application.
I do not like to have a whole lot of brushes and to have the chore of cleaning them. As you showed towards the end of your demo, I like to use wrags for applications. I have found that as long as i don't try to go too thin with my application, i can just use paper towels. If I try to apply too thin, the paper towel will scruff off in little lint-like pieces. When using the paper towels, i let them dry out before throwing into an outside trash can that is located far away from anything that is combustible. I dry by hanging over a nail or on a saw horse under the cellar hatchway for overnite, or to end of day, or however long it takes to get really dry. I never toss any rag or paper into a pile any where before completly dry. The only pile i put any of that is into the trash can as mentioned above. I seem to have promoted arguements with my remarks about this on several occasions as some WW'ers tell me that not everything oily or paint or thinner will combust in a pile or bucket. I continue to warn as I have been to too many fires, (VFD for 27 years) and witnessed too many fire where oily wrags have combusted when air hits them.
Tinker
