How to store boiled linseed oil so that you can re-open the bottle at a later date

I have a bottle of boiled linseed oil. It is a typical DIY store thin clear plastic bottle, with a safety cap. After the first use, this is, being polite, somewhat difficult to open.

I am thinking I should decant into a more sturdy bottle, Then remember to wipe the cap and the neck of the bottle before closing.

Does anybody have any tips to prevent the bottle cap becoming glued on by polymerised oil ?

How about something like a Grolsch bottle or kilner jar?

Adrian

Hi

After experiencing problems like those of Alan, I keep mine in a wide-mouthed jar with a screw top lid which I think once contained pickled onions. I keep the jar on a shelf and don't tip it so the oil never gets up to the screw thread or the lid. When I want some oil I get the jar down carefully and open it carefully and take some oil out with a stick or a paint brush without letting any oil touch the lip of the jar. It's a little cumbersome but it works well as I only seem to need a small amount of oil at a time. If I needed more oil at at a time I would see if I could find a pipette or similar. This was never a problem back in the days of glass bottles and real corks!

Rod

Hi Alan,

As with tubes of oil paints the caps often "glue" themselves on to the neck of the tube. The way that usually works to unstick them is to immerse the cap, and only the cap, in a shallow tray of boiling water for a little while. Worth a try!

John

Glass bottles with real corks are still available, you just have to drink the contents first. For some reason I find single malt bottles the most satisfying to use.

Adrian

Perhaps closing the cap on a small bit of cling film will stop the Linseed oil sticking?

Reminds me of my ironmongers apprentice days in the 50's. We sold loose raw liseed oil, boiled linseed oil, turps sub, genuine turps, creosote and meths, all in 45 gallon barrels, the linsed oil was always the messy slow running one to use. There were also 2 x 1000 gallon paraffin tanks in the leanto, so it was quite a messy area with leakages and spillage! The shop was sold in the early nineties, and the area redeveloped into a shopping mall, bet they had contamination issues!

Put a piece of cling film or polythene over the neck then put your top back , I always due tthis silicone Araldite Etc Never Failed me yet , Give it a try .

Best of luck

Brian M

Apart from the polythene/cling film thing which i also use all the time ,very handy for coffee jars etc... You could also use the old trick of putting clean glass marbles or something in the container to bring the level up and get rid of excess air. Linseed oil and particularly the boiled type (which in your case will be not boiled but with metallic driers added ) is very prone to setting in air contact. Though it never really drys hard and is usually easily peeled of the screw threads with a fingernail or something.

Linseed Oil hardens by oxidation and warms up. Not normally a risk except when Oil is mopped up with rags and dumped in a cosy bin. Oxidising freely over a cloths large surface area in a warm space the oil can get hot enough to catch fire.

Dave