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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!

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[-] autriyo@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

I've definitely refinished oil coatings with sanding, but you're going to need a lot of sandpaper...

It's not impossible, but also not very efficient.

this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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