Monday, September 28, 2026

Does UV light speed polymerization of Boiled Linseed Oil?

 One camp says UV (such as in sunlight or from mercury vapor lamps - the shortwave stuff, not blacklights - hastens the curing of BLO, the other camp says no, only oxygen matters, and not even heat will speed up the process because it is not drying in the usual sense.

 We are Fooling Around with every intention of Finding Out:

100 watts (electrical) of short-wave UV

 I actually put cardboard around it because I wanted to work near it, and use the bench, and even the stray scattered light from these things will give you - and your corneas - a sunburn, with bonus increased risk of skin cancer thirty years later.  Stay away from the evil-looking death light. :D

The strongest peaks in the mercury vapor spectra are:




Wavelength (nm) 
Name 
Color
184.45
ultraviolet (UVC) - !!
253.7
ultraviolet (UVC) - !!
365.0I-lineultraviolet (UVA)
404.7H-lineviolet
435.8G-lineblue
546.1
green
578

yellow




 

 The brightest peaks are the UV, blue, and green lines, which is why it looks like an eery sort of blue-green color to our eyes.














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