Solid Wood File Cabinet With Tung Oil Finish...

We bought a filing cabinet quite some time back for $20. It is solid wood (I would guess fir). I looked it up the other day and they go for $500-600 unfinished. I added new feet and replaced the toe kick plate with a new heavy duty one I made from scratch out of cedar. I searched for some online photos of pure Tung oil on unfinished furniture and did not really find what I needed, so I wanted to add some for others that might be also looking.

"With the drawer open you can see the before and after of the Tung oil on the wood surface..."

I sanded down the cabinet with 220 grit with a random orbital sander. I wiped the sanded surface with a clean rag and then used the pure tung oil on the surface. Wow, the oil brought the wood to life, color and depth. Beautiful, much nicer than before. Took waiting for the clouds to part to photograph this cabinet between the rains.

According to the Wikipedia "Tung oil is a drying oil obtained by pressing the seed from the nut of the tung tree (Vernicia fordii). As a drying oil, tung oil hardens (dries) upon exposure to air." Tung oil has been used for centuries on bowls and cutting boards. We bought our 100% Pure Tung Oil at Rockler. Easy to apply with a simple rag, forgiving and easy to repair later, Tung Oil is hard to beat for non-toxic natural finish. Although, most things I read suggested using solvents I just used the Tung oil straight and figured it would take longer to dry. I wanted a non-toxic finish rather than a fast finish.