I have refinished several gun stocks with a mixture of Boiled Linseed oil and mineral spirits. I have been reading about floor finishes and came across the same finish basically except using turpentine. Apparently this type of finish was quite common back in the day and was basically up until the advent of polyurethane it was the main type of wood floor finish.

The benefits to it is that it contains no VOC's and it is a deep penetrating finish instead of just a surface coating. You can "freshen up" the finish easily if you begin to see wear in later years by simply reapplying more. Plus it has a nice natural looking finish instead of the more glossy finish that poly's give.

Be careful with any ignition sources!!!!!

I suspect there is a reason everyone switched to poly.

I imagine just an oil finish would be a pain in the ass to clean.
Get satin if you don’t like shiny

if you like the natural look there is a natural stain. I would go with 3 coats of satin floor poly.

I agree it a much more natural look but like others have said it would be a pain to clean and probably wouldn't hold up as good.

If you decide to use this throw rags or what ever you have it on away. We use to rub down 4’ wood levels with it. A buddy of mine threw the rag in back of his truck. On the way home he saw smoke and it had ignited in the bed of the truck

ive been expirementing with pure tung oil not the fake 1% stuff. BLO is pretty similar but has a more yellow look and metals added. my advise would be that if you want the project done quick go with poly or helmsman. BLO has an advantage for small projects because you can just throw the rag away between each coat. but big projects would be very time consuming not to mention the cure time.

As mentioned above, rags used with BLO can auto-ignite. They used to make a fireproof can for BLO rags, but it's been a while since I've seen one.

That would be enough reason for me to use a satin poly.

In addition, oil finish floors will transfer oil/color to socks, kid's knees, etc. My mom had a house with dark oil finish floors when my son was crawling, and his knees always looked dirty of her floors looked good. Also very slippery when finish is fresh.

I have one room I am planning on doing this to. Been leaning toward Tung oil but I have no experience so I’m all ears from people with experience.

Thanks for all the replies. I think what I'm going to do is put about 3 coats of BLO cut with about 1/4 turpentine on a piece of pine stair tread I have left over of the course of 3 nights and let it cure and see how it looks and feels. I'm also going to experiment doing the same thing with a mixture of 1 part BLO, 1 part turpentine and 1 part oil based polyurethane and apply the coats with a scotchbrite pad and wipe off the excess with a rag. (You're basically wet sanding as your are applying the finish and then wiping the excess off.

Like I said in the first post, I'm fully aware of how the finish feels and how hard it dries, because I've done gun stocks with it. I's also well aware of the rags that will spontaneously combust. You are supposed to soak them in water before throwing them away in a metal container.

This outfit sells some pretty high dollar oil finish for floors that is pretty well regarded and from what I can tell from the website it is mainly BLO:

http://www.monocoat.us/

Here is a good article on finishing a wood floor with BLO:

https://ardec.ca/en/blog/22/linseed-oil-a-natural-solution-for-wood-finishing

Oil finish vs Varnish/Poly:

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/oil-vs-varnish-hardwood-floors-82509.html

I'm no more convinced in doing this than I am convinced to do a concrete counter top. What I'm trying to do is to research as much as possible and learn. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of information on oiled floors anymore because everyone just says, "Hey man you just need to do poly." Anything you try to do different there's always going to be folks out there that think you are crazy for even trying. I'm sure people thought the Wright Brothers were two crazy brothers who built bicycles and were gonna kill themselves.

I think one of the biggest complaints about oiled floors is that they are sticky, but in reality that goes back to improper application. I an guarantee you that I could take one of the gun stocks I've done and rub it on a white sock all day long and no color would come off of it onto the sock.

Cleaning it you just sweep and damp mop and maybe use some Murphy's oil soap every now and then.

A far as maintenance what you do is wipe it down with just a little bit of the BLO and turpentine mixture every few years. If you get a buggered up place, just sand and recoat that spot. Any dings and dents just add character.

When yo see the home renovation shows and they pull up the flooring to reveal this old wood floor and they all gush over how happy they are to find the original wood floors, I will guarantee you that those old floors that they uncovered were originally finished with BLO.