[Russell Cissell]

I guess we are kind of "old school" in the sense that we don't count the paraffinic oil as "solids." For example in our Timber Oil Stain if you were to count the paraffinic oil as a solid the product would be virtually 100% solids.

That is very misleading. Paraffinic oils are nothing more than a carrier; a vehicle for drawing the true solids into the wood. These oils don't evaporate and do in fact provide some benefit in that they will occupy voids in the wood that might otherwise be occupied by water. They do not however provide the same level of protection as true resin and pigment solids.

When we talk about solids, it is in the same way the coatings industry has for over a century. The solids make up the body of the finish. True solids include primarily the resin and pigment content but also the antifungal package and any other active ingredients.

Wood requires the most protection at the surface where it is subjected to the elements. Paraffinic oils do little to nothing in the way of protecting the surface. When it comes to the wood looking good (the primary concern of the majority of customers) it's all about the pigment and binders. When it comes to the long term performance of the finish the resins tell the story.

For example you could make a very simple stain with nothing more that paraffinic oil and pigment.

Baby Oil is Mineral Seal Oil, Mineral Seal Oil is Paraffinic Oil.
If you mixed Baby Oil and Pigment you would have a simple wood stain.

With 0% pigment you just have oil. If you put it on the wood, the wood will become slightly darker (like when it's wet) and it would be oily, which would help keep the water from penetrating in to the wood for a while. The wood would still be subjected to UV damage and would soon turn gray.

The more pigment you add, the higher the solids become. Many paraffinic stains will use as little as 3.5% pigment solids. This can be enough to provide UV protection, however you can imagine the coverage will be very low. At 3.5% pigment you may have to go as low as 75 - 90 square feet per gallon in order to get enough pigment on the surface of the wood for it to "look good" and have adequate UV protection.

Remember with little or no resin or binders to hold the pigment in the wood the color will quickly fade or wash away. At that point the customer is not going to care how "protected" you tell them the wood is. It just won't look "pretty."

The key to making a quality paraffinic stain is loading it with pigment. If you have to completely saturate the wood with oil in order to get enough pigment on the surface, in the long run the oil is going to work against you. Paraffinic oils do not dry and there is nothing to seal them, or bind them to the wood. This means they remain mobile.

If the wood gets too cold and contracts, the oils can get squeezed back to the surface and flush your pigment out of the wood. If the wood gets too hot the oils will thin and can make the wood feel oily again. By using more pigment, you don't have to completely saturate the wood with oil in order to achieve a beautiful finish. By not saturating the wood, you leave room for the natural mobility of the oils.

Any time you are working with a non drying system you will get the most protection out of the product with the highest spread rate. The spread rate is largely determined by the percentage of pigment solids. The second most important characteristic is going to be the anti-fungal package.

Contrary to "popular belief" paraffinic oils present a nightmare when it comes to mold and mildew. It is 100% true that mold and mildew will not attack paraffinic oils. The trouble is a true paraffinic stain never dries. The very thin layer of oil at the surface of the wood traps pollen and mold spores. Once you've got enough of each trapped on the surface, the mold will take hold and spread like wild fire.

Again you can tell the customer that the paraffinic oil is safe, so their wood is still protected, but as long as it doesn't look pretty, they aren't going to care. To combat mold and mildew a paraffinic oil requires nearly 3X the dose of antifungals as a resin based system (even if that resin was made with the dreaded linseed oil). Rather than go with the minimal adequate protection, we've dosed out Timber Oil Stain at the same level you find in a top quality 30 year exterior house paint.

Anything that is not locked to the wood is in some state of migration. In a non drying stain you have to load it up with anti fungals in anticipation of this migration.

Jim, I understand that things can get confusing when there is no control over the information that is being presented. You have no reason to take my word for it, I'm nothing but a salesman, but I have to tell you, Larry is correct. You have things completely backwards. Someone has sold you a bill of goods.

Without starting a major conflict, if you would like to ask me some direct questions about anything I've said, I am happy to address them. After having worked first hand with all types of coating formulations for nearly a decade, I have accumulated a fair bit of data to support my position. Additionally, if you get me in over my head, I can always call on our chemist to clear things up. He actually went to school for this stuff and has one of them fancy diplomas!