Please Help Identify Wood Type

[Retrovert]

As part of an offline discussion, I looked up the polymerization time for orange oil and lemon oil, as well as the mineral oil base.

Turns out it takes weeks to months for the natural oils to polymerize, and even longer for the refined petroleum oils. It is the thin surface coat which gives a sheen to the underlying finish and thereby "improves" the appearance. Yet that thin oil layer immediately begins binding to dust and other particulates, as oil will do, and slowly polymerizes (crosslinked molecules binding to each other) into a sticky mess, and this is what dulls the shine.

A lot of the reliance on wax and oil dates back to a time when finishes were, in a word, dreadful. Make that "simply dreadful", which is two words. Shellac was fragile and the only alternative was multiple coats of a drying oil, such as linseed oil. While George Grotz can be entertaining, he wrote in an era where even the best of finishes readily degraded. Waxes and oils should remain in the Eisenhower era where these best belong.

Modern urethane and petroleum varnishes are wonderful finishes by comparison, and these do not need the constant oiling and waxing required to maintain their ancestors.

 

[F1nut]

^ Exactly ^

As you correctly stated, almost all of the furniture "care" products are really nothing more than a perpetual money-making machine.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Interesting. Would you include Danish oil in that? There are a lot of speakers finished with oil finishes. Not the same as the lacquer on the speaks in this thread obviously.

 

[Retrovert]

Let me clear up the confusion in oil finishes.

The oils used for a hard finish are drying oils. This means the oil polymerizes, or the molecules crosslink with each other to form a giant macromolecule, essentially forming a plastic. ("Danish Oil", BTW, has no fixed meaning, so it can be linseed oil, tung oil, a blend of the two, petroleum, or entirely something else. Whatever is used, it falls under the broad term of Danish Oil. One could mix used french-fry oil with a drying agent and legally call it "Danish Oil".)

To effect the molecular changes needed requires oxidizers, aka "drying agents". (Akin to the meaningless term of "Danish Oil" is the equally meaningless drying agent name of "Japan Drier" which could mean anything from lead to cobalt to zinc.) Some oils take weeks to fully cure with a drying agent; without the drying agent the cure time is months, sometimes years.

Common oils for finishes are linseed oil aka boiled linseed oil, tung oil (which is itself a nonsensical term as most "tung" oil contains no tung oils, merely petroleum hydrocarbons), and aliphatic hydrocarbons, aka petroleum.

The oils used in the polishing solutions like Olde English or the lemon/orange oils above described, do not contain drying agents. Instead, the "polish", which is neither" is a cleaner (petroleum distillates and possibly limonene in orange or lemon oil) and a thin oil. The oil, tinned by volatile hydrocarbons, forms a thin, non-drying film on the surface which fills in the nooks and crannies and makes it shiny and thus "polished", at least until it attracts enough dust to require another application.

Two very different types of oil for two very different purposes.

My comments about the futility of oils was directed towards the mineral oil plus a solvent, with a dash of lemon/orange oil for scent and possibly cleaning. Such oils are not intended to dry but to remain shiny as a very thin film and thus "polish" the surface to a gloss.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Excellent info, thanks. Extra points for inventing French Fry Danish Oil. Would totally use that.

 

[theophile]

It is either Natalie Wood or Clint Eastwood.

 

[elcoholic]

The oils used in the polishing solutions like Olde English or the lemon/orange oils above described, do not contain drying agents. Instead, the "polish", which is neither" is a cleaner (petroleum distillates and possibly limonene in orange or lemon oil) and a thin oil. The oil, tinned by volatile hydrocarbons, forms a thin, non-drying film on the surface which fills in the nooks and crannies and makes it shiny and thus "polished", at least until it attracts enough dust to require another application.

General Finishes' Orange Oil is the exception, it's pure orange oil, no petroleum distillates. I prefer it over anything else for use on oil/varnish blend finishes.

 

[Retrovert]

General Finishes' Orange Oil is the exception, it's pure orange oil, no petroleum distillates. I prefer it over anything else for use on oil/varnish blend finishes.

Okaaaay.

I will now totally debunk this product. Don't take this personal, it isn't intended to be. This is about the way General Finishes presents this product in what I consider to be a misrepresentation about the ingredients.

What's All This "Orange Oil", Anyway?

First, pure orange oil is limonene, commonly used as degreasing agent. That's why I wrote in No. 59 that the orange oil (limonene) was present to serve a perfume and degreaser: "The orange oil is likely present for smell and because, depending upon the formulation, it functions like a solvent."

Further reading and some proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_oil

Limonene is a terpene. The petroleum solvents were an inexpensive replacement for plant-derived terpenes like turpentine. So what you have is a slightly more expensive solvent/degreaser than deodorized kerosene.

You are doing exactly part of what I suggested: removing polymerized oil—kitchen grease, human hands, air pollution, etc.—from the surface of the finish.

But wait, there's more, because that's not all the ingredients and not even the majority!

Debunking: General Finishes' Orange Oil Contains 5% to 10% Limonene and 90% to 95% MINERAL OIL

Let's examine the above claim that General Finishes Orange Oil is somehow "pure orange oil, no petroleum distillates". Not true.

The product claims:

https://generalfinishes.com/wood-fi...olishes-and-waxes/orange-oil-furniture-polish
Orange Oil is General Finishes most popular and natural furniture care product. It can be used on any cured finish and does a superb job of removing everyday dirt and dust. It is often compared to lemon oil; however, the big difference is lemon oil contains mineral spirits. Orange Oil is all natural, non-combustible and made from real orange rinds. We love its fresh orange scent.​

The product hints that it is pure orange oil from fruit rinds but does not actually state this. For good reason!

Check out the SDS on the product. It specifies 5 to 10% orange oil, the rest is mineral oil as "White mineral oil (petroleum)". See:

https://generalfinishes.com/sites/d...-finishes-ghs-us-hcs-2012-v4.7-2017-02-28.pdf​

If the product has < 10% of the claimed "orange oil", the rest must be something else, right? It certainly is not luminiferous aether.

But rather than tell you this, the "oil" component which does the work is buried in the SDS.

Mineral oil is technically not a petroleum distillate or "mineral spirits", which refers to flammable and volatile solvents. So the statement is technically true, but highly deceptive. People think it means "no mineral oil" which is not true.

What you are doing is spreading a mineral oil on your cabinets. That's where the sheen comes form. This is basically the same product as Olde English or any other furniture oil. The limone makes the oil more spreadable and removes the existing oil while laying down a new layer. Remember what I wrote about a perpetual cycle of taking your money? Well, this is how it works.

Use the Real Thing: 95% Limonene, No Oil

Pure limonene is an excellent solvent and degreaser. For at least a decade I've been using CitraSolv which is 95% limonene. It is an excellent degreaser, similar to deodorized kerosene which has the advantage of little odor unlike the limonene.

See:

https://www.citrasolv.com/​

Cost is a fraction of the General Finishes Orange Oil and it is available in the supermarket. At least in mine.

Computation: roughly the same price per ounce for both products, but given the CitraSolv has ten to twenty times more limonene for the same price, it works out to be 1/10th to 1/20th of the price per normalized unit of limonene. The ingredients are also fully disclosed without marketing puffery or with the truth hidden in an SDS.

Not only did I save you some money, but I got that mineral oil off your cabinet.

Science!

 

[4-2-7]

Orange-Glo is mineral oil, a petroleum solvent to act as a cleaner and make it spreadable, and orange oil as a perfume and perhaps additional solvent:

Distillates (petroleum), hydrotreated light 64742-47-8 60.00 - 70.00
Mineral oil 8012-95-1 10.00 - 15.00
Orange oil 8028-48-6 5.00 - 10.00

The solvent dilutes the mineral oil which is then deposited on the surface, fills in the cracks and once the solvent evaporates gradually crosslinks. The orange oil is likely present for smell and because, depending upon the formulation, it functions like a solvent. The formula is similar to Olde English furniture oil which, as would be expected, is nothing more than mineral oil, a solvent, and lemon oil as a perfume.

A lot of the apparent benefit of such products is being a low molecular weight solvent which won't attack the finish but which will remove oxidized wax, polymerized oil (kitchen grease which disperses throughout the home, oil from fingers, air pollution, etc.), and whatever migrates through the finish to collect dirt on the surface. The solvent acts as a cleaner and a new layer of glop covers the surface to make it temporarily shinier, at least until it too, begins to oxidize and collect dirt. A perpetual money-making machine.

When the oils are combined with a pigment the combination will cover up scratches, but this is purely cosmetic and temporary.

I agree with F1 in the general case about leaving the finish alone and simply dusting it, but this won't remove any polymerized oil on the surface.

One could get the same effect as the oils without the new layer of sticky glop by wiping the cabinet down with one of the deodorized kerosene solvents removes the deposits but generally will not attack the finish, if it is a fully cured polyurethane or linseed/tung oil. It should be equivalent to the the "xyz oil" without the oil part. First check in a non-visible spot. Many finishes, like shellac aka french polish, as well as anything wax based, are fragile and vulnerable to alcohols and solvents, including water. I have a table which has a shellac finish and water will cloud the finish.

As part of an offline discussion, I looked up the polymerization time for orange oil and lemon oil, as well as the mineral oil base.

Turns out it takes weeks to months for the natural oils to polymerize, and even longer for the refined petroleum oils. It is the thin surface coat which gives a sheen to the underlying finish and thereby "improves" the appearance. Yet that thin oil layer immediately begins binding to dust and other particulates, as oil will do, and slowly polymerizes (crosslinked molecules binding to each other) into a sticky mess, and this is what dulls the shine.

A lot of the reliance on wax and oil dates back to a time when finishes were, in a word, dreadful. Make that "simply dreadful", which is two words. Shellac was fragile and the only alternative was multiple coats of a drying oil, such as linseed oil. While George Grotz can be entertaining, he wrote in an era where even the best of finishes readily degraded. Waxes and oils should remain in the Eisenhower era where these best belong.

Modern urethane and petroleum varnishes are wonderful finishes by comparison, and these do not need the constant oiling and waxing required to maintain their ancestors.

Let me clear up the confusion in oil finishes.

The oils used for a hard finish are drying oils. This means the oil polymerizes, or the molecules crosslink with each other to form a giant macromolecule, essentially forming a plastic. ("Danish Oil", BTW, has no fixed meaning, so it can be linseed oil, tung oil, a blend of the two, petroleum, or entirely something else. Whatever is used, it falls under the broad term of Danish Oil. One could mix used french-fry oil with a drying agent and legally call it "Danish Oil".)

To effect the molecular changes needed requires oxidizers, aka "drying agents". (Akin to the meaningless term of "Danish Oil" is the equally meaningless drying agent name of "Japan Drier" which could mean anything from lead to cobalt to zinc.) Some oils take weeks to fully cure with a drying agent; without the drying agent the cure time is months, sometimes years.

Common oils for finishes are linseed oil aka boiled linseed oil, tung oil (which is itself a nonsensical term as most "tung" oil contains no tung oils, merely petroleum hydrocarbons), and aliphatic hydrocarbons, aka petroleum.

The oils used in the polishing solutions like Olde English or the lemon/orange oils above described, do not contain drying agents. Instead, the "polish", which is neither" is a cleaner (petroleum distillates and possibly limonene in orange or lemon oil) and a thin oil. The oil, tinned by volatile hydrocarbons, forms a thin, non-drying film on the surface which fills in the nooks and crannies and makes it shiny and thus "polished", at least until it attracts enough dust to require another application.

Two very different types of oil for two very different purposes.

My comments about the futility of oils was directed towards the mineral oil plus a solvent, with a dash of lemon/orange oil for scent and possibly cleaning. Such oils are not intended to dry but to remain shiny as a very thin film and thus "polish" the surface to a gloss.

Okaaaay.

I will now totally debunk this product. Don't take this personal, it isn't intended to be. This is about the way General Finishes presents this product in what I consider to be a misrepresentation about the ingredients.

What's All This "Orange Oil", Anyway?

First, pure orange oil is limonene, commonly used as degreasing agent. That's why I wrote in No. 59 that the orange oil (limonene) was present to serve a perfume and degreaser: "The orange oil is likely present for smell and because, depending upon the formulation, it functions like a solvent."

Further reading and some proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_oil

Limonene is a terpene. The petroleum solvents were an inexpensive replacement for plant-derived terpenes like turpentine. So what you have is a slightly more expensive solvent/degreaser than deodorized kerosene.

You are doing exactly part of what I suggested: removing polymerized oil—kitchen grease, human hands, air pollution, etc.—from the surface of the finish.

But wait, there's more, because you are being lied to!

Debunking: General Finishes' Orange Oil Contains 5% to 10% Limonene and 90% to 95% MINERAL OIL

Let's examine the highly deceptive claim that General Finishes Orange Oil is somehow "pure orange oil, no petroleum distillates".

Check out the SDS on the product. It specifies 5 to 10% orange oil, the rest is mineral oil as "White mineral oil (petroleum)". See:

https://generalfinishes.com/sites/d...-finishes-ghs-us-hcs-2012-v4.7-2017-02-28.pdf​

If the product has < 10% of the claimed "orange oil", the rest must be something else, right? It certainly is not luminiferous aether.

But rather than tell you this, the "oil" component which does the work is buried in the SDS.

Mineral oil is technically not a petroleum distillate, which refers to flammable and volatile solvents. So the statement is technically true, but highly deceptive. People think it means "no petroleum" which is not true.

What you are doing is spreading a mineral oil on your cabinets. That's where the sheen comes form. This is basically the same product as Olde English or any other furniture oil. The limone makes the oil more spreadable and removes the existing oil while laying down a new layer. Remember what I wrote about a perpetual cycle of taking your money? Well, this is how it works.

Use the Real Thing: 95% Limonene, No Oil

Pure limonene is an excellent solvent and degreaser. For at least a decade I've been using CitraSolv which is 95% limonene. It is an excellent degreaser, similar to deodorized kerosene which has the advantage of little odor unlike the limonene.

See:

https://www.citrasolv.com/​

Cost is a fraction of the General Finishes Orange Oil and it is available in the supermarket. At least in mine.

Computation: roughly the same price per ounce for both products, but given the CitraSolv has ten to twenty times more limonene for the same price, it works out to be 1/10th to 1/20th of the price per normalized unit of limonene. The ingredients are also fully disclosed without marketing puffery or lies with the truth hidden in an SDS.

Not only did I save you some money, but I got that mineral oil off your cabinet.

Science!

I will now totally debunk this product.

Ok so what are you trying to say?
Copying & Pasting chemical info in a thread has nothing to do with what to do with it, how it works in real world use and the outcome of the project.

 

[Retrovert]

Ok so what are you trying to say?
Copying & Pasting chemical info in a thread has nothing to do with what to do with it, how it works in real world use and the outcome of the project.

I've explained what the product is: oil and a solvent, i.e. a conventional furniture oil.

This wasn't cut-and-paste, I actually wrote up an analysis of the ingredients in the product and why it, like all other products of its type, will spread a thin layer mineral oil on the surface to provide a sheen instead of polishing, which is the removal of fine scratches through rubbing. I have enough grasp of chemistry and materials to understand what these products are, how they work, and to read an SDS and point out the core issues.

Do you dispute my analysis? If so, point out my errors.

Others are promoting this product as a wood finish and/or protectent, when it is none of these things: it is a thin sheen of oil.

 

[Retrovert]

Excellent info, thanks. Extra points for inventing French Fry Danish Oil. Would totally use that.

You do realize I'm going to charge you $500 per pint and tell you it was used to fry Elvis' peanut-butter and banana sandwiches.

Who cares about the finish quality with that pedigree?

 

[F1nut]

it is a thin sheen of oil

When I explain that to my clients I can tell some of them are having a hard time grasping the concept, so I'll ask, would you use motor oil on your furniture? Oh no, of course not they answer. Well, that product you've been using isn’t all that different.

 

[4-2-7]

Others are promoting this product as a wood finish and/or protectent, when it is none of these things: it is a thin sheen of oil.

Do you dispute my analysis? If so, point out my errors.

Yes, I see a couple errors, please go find the promotion of a cleaning polish that anyone in this thread said was a wood finish. Your a smart guy and it should be easy to analyze 71 comments and quote it.
When you return I'll tell you what the second error is.

 

[F1nut]

Yes, I see a couple errors, please go find the promotion of a cleaning polish that anyone in this thread said was a wood finish. Your a smart guy and it should be easy to analyze 71 comments and quote it.
When you return I'll tell you what the second error is.

I believe he was referring to some of the manufacturers, not anyone in this thread.

 

[4-2-7]

I believe he was referring to some of the manufacturers, not anyone in this thread.

No he got on his rant after the OP asked a question today presented to me about Orange-Glo.

And as what I say is his second error is not knowing what a finish is or means.

 

[F1nut]

No he got on his rant after the OP asked a question today presented to me about Orange-Glo.

And as what I say is his second error is not knowing what a finish is or means.

Take it from someone that does finishing, among other furniture related work, for a living. He knows exactly what a finish is and isn't.

 

[elcoholic]

Well it looks like I bought into the label, but I was correct even if on a technicality. Seems to me mineral oil will be more benign than petroleum distillate. BTW I don't use orange oil on film finishes. I do use it on my dining room table to clean it 2 or 3 times a year and buff it out with my car buffer and a wool pad. I'm not leaving a sticky layer of oil on top of an impermeable film finish. The table is finished with Sam Maloof's polyurethane varnish/BLO/tung oil blend, I didn't use Step 2, the oil/wax blend since it's a dining room table.

I diligently stay away from grocery store furniture polish/cleaning products* for fear of silicone contamination. No cleaning/rust preventative sprays in my shop either. I just use good old Johnson paste wax on the machinery. I've never had fisheye problems with waterborne finishes and am very thankful for that. My film finish of choice is GF's EnduroPoly and I've been using it since I had to go to San Clemente and buy it directly from Compliant Spray Systems. I just had some of the satin tinted Espresso Bean for an oak bathroom vanity which I sprayed in situ yesterday (hurray for HVLP!). It turned out just the way I wanted with the grain still visible.

* Truth be told there was a time Lemon Pledge did have it's place in my life, but not on my furniture. When I was a competition Foosball player it was the best rod lube going so it was always in my ditty bag along with a rosin bag for the handles and a pair of deerskin golf gloves.

 

[woodj]

Let me clear up the confusion in oil finishes.

All of your treatises on finishes are extremely enlightening.

Just an aside: I have several times heated raw linseed oil to near flashpoint and applied it to unfinished wood; it will be absorbed (almost completely) and usually dries within a day or so. A note of caution: do not recoat as a gooey mess will result. After a while, 2/1 boiled linseed oil/solvent may be be applied(turpentine mineral spirits etc). Linseed oils will tend to yellow over time, but the hot mixture seems to react more slowly.

BEWARE, hot linseed oil can be dangerous - do not over heat as it can flash and catch fire - do not get it on yourself - it can cause serious burns; it will melt even natural bristle.

 

[jimbofish]

Let me clear up the confusion in oil finishes.

The oils used for a hard finish are drying oils. This means the oil polymerizes, or the molecules crosslink with each other to form a giant macromolecule, essentially forming a plastic. ("Danish Oil", BTW, has no fixed meaning, so it can be linseed oil, tung oil, a blend of the two, petroleum, or entirely something else. Whatever is used, it falls under the broad term of Danish Oil. One could mix used french-fry oil with a drying agent and legally call it "Danish Oil".)

To effect the molecular changes needed requires oxidizers, aka "drying agents". (Akin to the meaningless term of "Danish Oil" is the equally meaningless drying agent name of "Japan Drier" which could mean anything from lead to cobalt to zinc.) Some oils take weeks to fully cure with a drying agent; without the drying agent the cure time is months, sometimes years.

Common oils for finishes are linseed oil aka boiled linseed oil, tung oil (which is itself a nonsensical term as most "tung" oil contains no tung oils, merely petroleum hydrocarbons), and aliphatic hydrocarbons, aka petroleum.

The oils used in the polishing solutions like Olde English or the lemon/orange oils above described, do not contain drying agents. Instead, the "polish", which is neither" is a cleaner (petroleum distillates and possibly limonene in orange or lemon oil) and a thin oil. The oil, tinned by volatile hydrocarbons, forms a thin, non-drying film on the surface which fills in the nooks and crannies and makes it shiny and thus "polished", at least until it attracts enough dust to require another application.

Two very different types of oil for two very different purposes.

My comments about the futility of oils was directed towards the mineral oil plus a solvent, with a dash of lemon/orange oil for scent and possibly cleaning. Such oils are not intended to dry but to remain shiny as a very thin film and thus "polish" the surface to a gloss.

Okaaaay.

I will now totally debunk this product. Don't take this personal, it isn't intended to be. This is about the way General Finishes presents this product in what I consider to be a misrepresentation about the ingredients.

What's All This "Orange Oil", Anyway?

First, pure orange oil is limonene, commonly used as degreasing agent. That's why I wrote in No. 59 that the orange oil (limonene) was present to serve a perfume and degreaser: "The orange oil is likely present for smell and because, depending upon the formulation, it functions like a solvent."

Further reading and some proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_oil

Limonene is a terpene. The petroleum solvents were an inexpensive replacement for plant-derived terpenes like turpentine. So what you have is a slightly more expensive solvent/degreaser than deodorized kerosene.

You are doing exactly part of what I suggested: removing polymerized oil—kitchen grease, human hands, air pollution, etc.—from the surface of the finish.

But wait, there's more, because that's not all the ingredients and not even the majority!

Debunking: General Finishes' Orange Oil Contains 5% to 10% Limonene and 90% to 95% MINERAL OIL

Let's examine the above claim that General Finishes Orange Oil is somehow "pure orange oil, no petroleum distillates". Not true.

The product claims:

https://generalfinishes.com/wood-fi...olishes-and-waxes/orange-oil-furniture-polish
Orange Oil is General Finishes most popular and natural furniture care product. It can be used on any cured finish and does a superb job of removing everyday dirt and dust. It is often compared to lemon oil; however, the big difference is lemon oil contains mineral spirits. Orange Oil is all natural, non-combustible and made from real orange rinds. We love its fresh orange scent.​

The product hints that it is pure orange oil from fruit rinds but does not actually state this. For good reason!

Check out the SDS on the product. It specifies 5 to 10% orange oil, the rest is mineral oil as "White mineral oil (petroleum)". See:

https://generalfinishes.com/sites/d...-finishes-ghs-us-hcs-2012-v4.7-2017-02-28.pdf​

If the product has < 10% of the claimed "orange oil", the rest must be something else, right? It certainly is not luminiferous aether.

But rather than tell you this, the "oil" component which does the work is buried in the SDS.

Mineral oil is technically not a petroleum distillate or "mineral spirits", which refers to flammable and volatile solvents. So the statement is technically true, but highly deceptive. People think it means "no mineral oil" which is not true.

What you are doing is spreading a mineral oil on your cabinets. That's where the sheen comes form. This is basically the same product as Olde English or any other furniture oil. The limone makes the oil more spreadable and removes the existing oil while laying down a new layer. Remember what I wrote about a perpetual cycle of taking your money? Well, this is how it works.

Use the Real Thing: 95% Limonene, No Oil

Pure limonene is an excellent solvent and degreaser. For at least a decade I've been using CitraSolv which is 95% limonene. It is an excellent degreaser, similar to deodorized kerosene which has the advantage of little odor unlike the limonene.

See:

https://www.citrasolv.com/​

Cost is a fraction of the General Finishes Orange Oil and it is available in the supermarket. At least in mine.

Computation: roughly the same price per ounce for both products, but given the CitraSolv has ten to twenty times more limonene for the same price, it works out to be 1/10th to 1/20th of the price per normalized unit of limonene. The ingredients are also fully disclosed without marketing puffery or with the truth hidden in an SDS.

Not only did I save you some money, but I got that mineral oil off your cabinet.

Science!

Both of these should be made 'sticky'.

Excellent info, thanks. Extra points for inventing French Fry Danish Oil. Would totally use that.

Should be very popular in some states. https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5a67633200d0ef1f008b4b63-960-766.png

 

[Retrovert]

Well it looks like I bought into the label, but I was correct even if on a technicality. Seems to me mineral oil will be more benign than petroleum distillate.

A bit of clarification.

Solvents and oils serve very different purposes and are not equivalent. In this case, the cleaner/degreaser function is performed by either (a) petroleum distillate, (b) limonene, or (c) a combination of the two. The mineral oil is simply that: an oil to provide a sheen, and is a constant inrgredient between the different types of furniture cleaner products. So in both cases (limonene + mineral oil) vs. (mineral spirits + mineral oil) the mineral oil is identical and provides the sheen. Mineral oil tends to crosslink with less enthusiasm than vegetable oils. Try that mix with any cooking oil and the finish would quickly be sticky, just like kitchen grease.

Limonene is a terpene like turpentine, and these are generally safer as cleaners and degreasers than petroleum solvents.

BTW I don't use orange oil on film finishes. I do use it on my dining room table to clean it 2 or 3 times a year and buff it out with my car buffer and a wool pad. I'm not leaving a sticky layer of oil on top of an impermeable film finish.

If mineral oil is being applied it will sit in the surface irregularities and not be removed. If the entirety of it were removed, no benefit would accrue to its application other than removal of polymerized oil. Might as well use actual pure limonene for that purpose.

I do not believe it is possible to fully buff out all of the oil and that some oil remains. This is what provides the "sheen". It is not a polish which removes scratches and smooths the surface.

I diligently stay away from grocery store furniture polish/cleaning products* for fear of silicone contamination. No cleaning/rust preventative sprays in my shop either. I just use good old Johnson paste wax on the machinery.

The corrosion inhibitors in metal polish are beneficial to prevent rust and are not silicones. Entirely different chemistry.

Vegetable waxes are permeable to moisture and are physically fragile. Tooling and firearms are protected using a thick layer of petroleum wax plus a petroleum solvent to make it spreadable, this concoction is commonly sold under the trademarked name Cosmoline. It is the bane of soldiers and firearm owners because it is difficult to remove once the solvent has evaporated.