Rubio Monocoat

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Glynne

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Whilst browsing Instagram for ideas / inspiration I came across images of oak treated with a reactive smoke and fumed effect.
Now previously having experimented (not very successfully) with wire wool and acetic acid and also with 0.880 ammonia, I was immediately interested and so contacted http://www.rubiomonocoat.com/en/home?country=gb for more information.

As I live ~ 5 miles away, I visited and Simon Whittome (MD) very kindly gave up an hour of his time yesterday to demonstrate some of the Rubio products.
I saw 2 of the pre-treatments - RMC Fumed & RMC Smoke. Both are designed to be used on woods with a high tannin content (i.e. oak) and are simply wiped / brushed on to give the desired effect, the more you use the greater the effect. Nothing harmful in the treatment, although I did let Simon smell the bottle before I did. Touch dry almost immediately and completely dry in 12 - 24 hours.

The main Rubio products are the coloured oils which are based on linseed oil and are wiped / brushed on as before. The difference between Rubio and other products such as Danish Oil / Osmo is the way it is said to work. Whereas other oils will penetrate the wood and the more coats you apply the more the saturation, Rubio is said to work by molecular bonding on the surface layer only. One of the advantages of this is that you can easily sand the finish if you don't like the effect / colour. Also unlike varnishes which sit on the surface and can be built up layer on layer, Rubio only creates the one layer and so any additional application has no effect - as was demonstrated to me. So hence the "Monocoat" name. The oil alone evidently takes a long time to dry by itself so it can be purchased with an accelerator to speed the process up.

Simon gave me a few samples to try out: -
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and I had a play with these yesterday : -
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I was also interested in the oils for use on lighter coloured wood as I often find Danish oil / Osmo "yellows" the wood and hence you can probably just see some ash in the background as a test.

I'll update on my thoughts as I use Rubio but I thought people would be interested given that it is a one coat finish and is said to be as durable, if not more than other finishes.

I have no connection whatsoever with the company (personal or commercial) and wasn't asked to promote any of the products but was impressed with what I saw and hence the post.
Web site as above, any other enquiries to Simon Whittome (01827 59041 / 07543 158784) [email protected]
 

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