I recently purchased some Daly's Benmatte Tung Oil and some Waterlox Original Sealer. I got small containers of each but even though it will take me a little while to use the entire contents. I have some extra empty plastic bottles and was considering pouring off some of the contents into the plastic bottles, filling them to the top. The oils are in metal containers, is this for a reason?

I use the collapsible bottles shown in this picture from Lee Valleys site



The trick is to keep the air from the oil. I also use baby food bottles that have an air-tight seal.

I use canning jars to stor all my stains and oils.
keep the lid area wiped off and replace the lid when the get bent or crusty.

In truth once you open the can, it is just a matter of time until they set up, no matter what you do...The best thing is to use your cutting torch and fill the space in the can with gas and shut the lid, but again your just buying time IMO....Ben Matte keeps better than most finishes BTW...

Stockmaker Earl Milliron taught me a trick for storing Tru-Oil and Linspeed: Carefully fill the remaining space in the jar with plain old tapwater, nearly to the brim. The Linspeed will seperate from the water and come to the surface, and the water will remain on the bottom.

I've stored my Linspeed and Tru-Oil this way many times, and it works perfectly.

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Get a hand full of kids' marbles. Add them to the can to bring contents up to the top to evacuate all the air and just re-seal it. Add more marbles as you use the finish. That's a long time trick for wood finishes.

I usually squeeze the bottle until the liquid is at the very top, then put the cover on tight! Might not last forever, but it helps the tung oil last a little longer anyway.

I just got to thinking, if you use one of the Food Saver machines with the attachment for jars, that should work pretty well. Should be just as good as the factory bottles.

As soon as I buy the finish I repour into 2 oz. glass jars. One jar will do a couple of stocks if done simultaneously. Otherwise, doing only one you will end up throwing about half a jar away. That's better than tossing 15 ounces of finish. One caveat, store the little jars of finish in a dark place.