But that is boiled linseed oil. The raw type, plain linseed oil, will never dry.

I love oils for their beauty, but they aren't up to the use and abuse we see on our boats. Kids by the dozens, dogs, endless meals cooked and splattered on all surfaces, we have to use pretty strong cleaners and wash wood surfaces regularly, some often, just to keep it clean below. Oil is beautiful, but it sinks into wood and won't hold up to our cleaning abuse. If you don't need to clean the wood often, oil will do well.

Having fun with my wide angle lens, I took this shot and realized, I haven't re-coated a thing(except for some newly built galley cabinet components and stairway just refinished) since 2000. At that time in 2000, I stripped most of what you see but not all surfaces(bulkheads were not stripped). Some of the varnish in this photo I didn't remove and simply sanded some tooth into it, and re coated. It could be decades old. Coatings below do last decades if sun is limited(notice our port shades)

This is all gloss spar varnish(because I'm lazy and only buy one type), the gloss disappears in little time, especially on places like the sole, but the coating is tough. The coating is on the outside of the wood and will still easily clean up with cleaners, hot water and elbow grease.