When I told the fourth generation owner of the hardwood flooring company that I was going to finish the floor myself with 100% pure tung oil (from the tung nut), he was impressed. He said that his great-grandfather had told him stories about how the fanciest houses in Philadelphia had used 100% pure tung oil back in his day, and that modern finishes couldn't compete.
He told me that apparently its use fell out of favor, despite its stellar reputation, once plastic-based finishes came along, because Tung oil takes weeks to cure (as opposed to hours), and the modern world has little patience for such things. Thus, in his long life as a flooring professional he'd never actually encountered or used 100% pure tung oil, but he was excited to see, given his great-grandpa's enthusiasm, how it all turned out.
After he'd finished up all of the sanding, I applied multiple rounds of tung oil (11 gallons in total), hand-buffing with cotton rags between each round. Then I babysat it for two straight weeks. Each day I'd go over to the house and tie fresh cotton rags over my shoes and I'd skate all over the house for an hour, listening to salsa, soaking up any small puddles of oil that had pooled on the surface.
I could certainly see why the modern world wasn't interested in this product anymore. It required serious commitment.
Fortunately, serious commitment is what Studio Ecotopia is all about.
After the oil had cured the fourth generation flooring contractor came over to the house to see how it turned out. His verdict? "If I could choose any finish in the world for my own floor, in the most ideal house I could build, without a doubt I would choose 100% pure tung oil. Unreal."