Soaking the Keel

This step that I plan is also somewhat out of line with the conventioanl wisdom, but but I got the idea from reading a book by a professional sailboat builder. He says that in initial construction he always soaks his keel really well with linseed oil and kerosene to get it to expand to its full size to be built around. the kerosene is really just a thinner to get better oil penetration, and should evaporate pretty quickly. My fungus research led me to the information that black copper oxide powder (unlike the red used for anti-fouling) is deadly to most fungi. I bought some to experiment with for a couple bucks, and I think I'm going to add that to my thinned linseed oil. I'm having a surprising amount of trouble finding kerosene, the filling stations that have pumps for it around here are telling me they are out. Probably not high profit enough for todays price gouging gas stations to carry. I might just thin with paint thinner which I already have on hand. If this concoction does not react and bubble up or explode when I mix it I am going to paint it onto the keel. The copper should keep this important member that is almost always wet from rotting for a long long time, and the linseed oil will hopefully expand the wood meaning less time in the cradle and less sweating over whether or not she will float when that critical day comes. I plan to do this while I am busy painting above the waterline to give it a couple days to soak in and dry before moving on to painting the bottom. After which time I can continue applying it periodically from the inside until she goes into the water. Once I get her in the water I am going to just throw the rest of the black copper oxide into the bilge to float around and hopefully kill any organism that has plans of causing rot in my boat. Some people pour bleach in the bilge which does kill fungi, but is also reactive with the copper wood treatment already on most of my wood, not to mention caustic if it is undiluted or somehow concentrated, so the bleach I've already used in the deconstruction is as much as I want to use.