Linseed oil paint dilemma

[livias]

We have exposed rafters and ply ?soffits? which are to be painted with black linseed oil paint. Trouble is, it is too late in the year and so they will take forever to dry
I could ...
Give them one coat anyway. They are high up and black so impervections will not be seen. No one is going to rub against them. It is convenient to do it now while the scaffold is up. The paint will protect the wood during winter and the building will look prettier
or I could ...
Leave them bare until next summer. The rafters are treated so are not going to be damaged by one winters weather. If the paint fails in some way (which I know not) during the winter it might be pig of a job to rub it down

What would you do?

 

[malcolm]

The linseed paint I applied yesterday was dry to the touch today. The weather is still OK. I might have a bit of wrinkling in the test bit of second coat applied after two days so am going for a week between coats for everything else.

 

[Me!]

I put a first coat of linseed paint a bare wood window frame on Saturday. I didn't risk closing it fully on Saturday night, but I did on Sunday night and I've just checked it now and it hasn't stuck shut. Even after a coat of pre-treatment oil, the first coat of paint seems to soak in a bit and dry much more quickly than the following coats. If you have new or bare wood to paint, then I'd certainly be OK with putting one coat of paint on with the weather we're having at the moment.

 

[Feltwell]

Go for it, so long as the forecast is dry! I painted all my roofline woodwork in linseed paint in November - 4 coats in total.

So long as it doesn't rain on it when it's wet it will be fine. I had some bargeboards where that happened, put lots of little pock marks all over the paint, I had to rub it down smooth and re-paint. A bit of dew on the paint from cold nights doesn't seem to affect it, it's such fine moisture I guess it just evaporates off harmlessly when the sun comes up.