On April 9th, I posted the USDA’s recipe for a DIY non-toxic wood preservative.  I wanted to follow up with the comment that I’ve now tried it myself at home, and found it to be very easy to mix together, and then to apply.  It cost me less than $17 for a gallon of the mix, and it covered probably 200 linear feet of 2×8 boards.  So it goes a long way, soaks in and dries quickly. 

To reinterate:  the mix I used was: mineral spirits, linseed oil, and melted paraffin (please refer to the original post for the complete recipe and directions).  There was some concern about melting the paraffin, so here is how I did it.  You only need to melt 1 ounce, so I put it in a clean tin can from my recycling bin, which I set into a pan of water on medium heat on my stove.  It melts very quickly, so don’t walk away from it.  When melted, I removed it from the heat, and added the linseed oil to the can of paraffin, swooshed it around to blend it, and then added it to a gallon sized container of mineral spirits.  Put the lid on tight and shake.  Done.

 Now we just have to wait 10-20 years to see how it holds up!