When it came to protecting our wood products the choice was simple. It needed to be free of harsh chemicals and easy to work with. Osmo finishing oils are made mostly from readily renewable, natural ingredients and can be easily applied by hand with a brush or by using a floor finish machine.
Solid Wood Products carries the complete line of Osmo oils and cleaning products. Please contact us to place your order.
Wood Finishing
When wood is used for indoor living it can be subjected to a lot of wear and tear. Therefore it needs to be specially protected while ensuring that the natural properties of the wood are not impaired.
Osmo Hardwax Oil is our favorite finish for wood floors. It is also suitable for furniture, wood trim, cabinets and unglazed tile such as slate and terra cotta.
Osmo interior finishes are produced using carefully selected raw materials from nature. They are micro porous and perfectly tailored to the wood's natural properties.
Instead of forming a plastic film, like polyurethane does, OSMO Hardwax Oil has open pores allowing the wood to "breathe" and retain its elasticity.
Benefits of OSMO Hardwax Oil
Practical benefits include:
Preserves the look and feel of real wood—not a plastic coating.
Easy to apply—just two thin coats.
Will not raise the grain when applied. Therefore no need to sand between coats.
High coverage (200-250 sq.ft. per liter)
Penetrates into the wood surface, keeping it elastic but making it water-resistant. Finished wood won't show water stains.
Easy to clean—just vacuum and damp-mop.
Environmental benefits include:
Made mostly from readily renewable, natural ingredients.
Extremely durable—keeps existing flooring in good shape for decades.
When dry, meets European safety standards for use on children's furniture and toys and resistance to perspiration and saliva.
Contains no biocides or preservatives, only aliphatic low-odor mineral spirits that meet the German standard for purity.
Benefits of Osmo versus Polyurethane
Plastic floor finishes such as polyurethane have become so standard in the United States that many people are surprised to learn they have an option: a repairable floor finish, also known as a penetrating oil or wax finish. Instead of coating the floor with a film, as polyurethane does, these finishes penetrate into wood fibers and protect from within. When the finish wears-as all floor finishes eventually do-spot-repair is so easy that homeowners can keep the finish in good shape indefinitely.
The only problem with most oil and wax finishes is that they need frequent maintenance. Our OSMO Hardwax Oil is far more durable. Tests in Germany, where it is manufactured, showed it to be just as tough as polyurethane. Yet it is very definitely a repairable floor finish—with the added benefits of being natural, low-toxic and pleasant to use.
Why plastics are hard to touch up
Spot repairs on polyurethane are difficult for three reasons:
These finishes don't bond chemically to previous layers, so touch-ups grip only where the surface has been thoroughly scuffed. But if you attempt to scuff up a spot with sandpaper and then paint fresh finish over the area, you discover the problem: Inevitably, the dried repair shows.
Particularly with oil-based polyurethane, which gives wood a rich amber tint, color-matching can be difficult.
The sheen of a patch will differ from that of the surrounding floor, unless the repair is done while the surrounding finish is still relatively new. The problem is that polyurethane looses gloss with heavy wear, and no amount of buffing will restore the sheen to the same level that will show on the patch.
OSMO Hardwax Oil, on the other hand, can be buffed repeatedly to its original luster. Wear spots treated with our Liquid Wax Cleaner buff well too. And when a fresh coat of finish does need to be applied, it's a simple process.
Ingredients
Key ingredients in Hardwax Oil include sunflower, soybean and thistle oil, plus two hard, natural waxes - carnauba and candelilla. A Brazilian palm tree, Copernica cerifera, produces the carnauba in its leaves, berries and stalks. Villagers cut down fronds, dry them for several days, and then beat off the wax. The candelilla comes from the outer coating on a desert shrub, Euphorbia antisyphiliti, that grows in northern Mexico. Farmers boil the leaves and stems with water and acid to release the wax. This is an oil-based product. Like most finishes—even water-based ones—it needs a solvent to perform properly. OSMO uses the safest one that works with oil-based finishes: benzene-free, low-odor mineral spirits. This is an aliphatic petroleum distillate, which means it is a petroleum product that has its carbon atoms arranged in open chains instead of rings. The more toxic, aromatic or ring hydrocarbons have been removed, resulting in a milder odor.
