Hi David!
I'm a bit jealous on your freind, would she become my freind to

walnut must be great on the grain.
I like working with oil. I often don't varnish it.
I dilute my oils often with pure orange oil.
personaly i like to use Tung oil even better then lineseed.
Lineseed makes the wood a bit yellow after time.
Tung smells better to

In holland Boiled linseed is the cheapest at fixit store, almost half the price from the praxis store
I by my other oils in Germany at
www.dick.biz they're cheap and give good service. (free sending above +/- $160,--)
.... they are not allowed to send every type of oil because of european law restrictions....
see al the oils :
http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/category/dickcatalog/oele-321_2720/detail.jsfI purchased cow horns to, Dind'nt use them jet, but will make keychains from them.