After reading all the walnut stock opinions what would be the best finish for a Alaskan gun?

Polyurethane spar varnish sprayed on. Not necessarily the prettiest but about as durable as you're going to get. You can mix spar varnish with Tung oil 50/50 and rub it on and get a very good looking finish that isn't quite as durable, sort of a compromise if you will, but still tough as all get out. I've used this recipe on competition rifles for years and it's always worked well through all kinds of weather including rain.

I've often considered the Brownell's spray-on Acraglas but have never used it. Seems like it would be fairly durable in addition to being waterproof.

Experience, anyone?
Regards, Joe

There is a guy in Alaska that has worked on perfecting epoxy finishes for wood stocks for many years. He posts on the 24 hr campfire forum. He has a great deal of experience with this and it looks fantastic. He doesn't use Acraglass I think mostly because of the consistency and "work time". The short version of the process is a mixed 2 part epoxy, any that have the real long set times, 48 hr I think. He heats the wood and the epoxy and rubs it in with his fingers. The warm wood cools and sucks the epoxy in. After hardening it's sanded, but I believe not to bare wood. Break throughs are re-done. At that point any favorite oil finish is applied / rubbed - whatever you want. The wood is sealed, pours are filled and the finish looks like a time honored rubbed oil finish. I have seen pics of this and it does look great. He uses alot of fancy maple and myrtle. The guns look outstanding and he hunts with them in any nasty weather. His name is Art and he goes by Sitka Deer on the forum. Interesting reading if you're interested in an epoxy finish.

oil finish and then if it is raining....IF, then daily applications of wax.

Oil is the easiest to mantain and the most beautiful. wax keeps the water off of your wood and your metal.

i have hunted alaska 17 times, that is also about 207 days of actual hunting.
about 2/3 of those days had rain somewhere in them.
the above oil wax combo has worked more than well. Well enough i would never apply a varnish on my wood.

Dave Norin has run long term tests on several finishes and spar varnishes hold up the best as far as oils go. But we are talking wood on a roof 24/7/365. A rifle stock does not see that much exposure at once.

I wrote an article on finishing, or at least sealing, stocks with acraglas 12+ years ago. It is soemwhere on the doublegunshop.com web site. Well I guess it is, people still email me about it. I do not finish stocks exactly like that now, but it works well. Play around with it and find what works best for you. The article has been linked to by people in the gunsmithing forum on AR several times over the years

I got some West Systems epoxy to try out, but got to doing almost only metal work, then got sick and don't really do any work now. In theory, the West Systems epoxy should be slightly better for sealing the wood, as compared to acraglas. But we are talking about soemthing that looks good on paper but would probably not be able to be measured in the real world. BUT-the West Systems stuff i got is definitely thinner and I think would be easier to work with.

It should be noted that nothing, including epoxy, will completely stop water migration in and out of a stock. "Sealing" is a relative word. You test this for yourself by applying so many coats of epoxy to a stock that you have it ocmpletely filled and an even layer of epoxy oveer the wood. Then put the stock in a drying cabinet with high heat and low humidity and leave it in there for a long time. Then remove the stock and measure how the wood shrunk a full 3/32 in from the metal butt plate.

And just to prove you are a rocket scientist, do the exact same thing 2 years later. Don't ask...

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:
. Then put the stock in a drying cabinet with high heat and low humidity and leave it in there for a long time. Then remove the stock and measure how the wood shrunk a full 3/32 in from the metal butt plate.

And just to prove you are a rocket scientist, do the exact same thing 2 years later. Don't ask...

Been there, done that, 10 years later I STILL feel stupid....
Regards, Joe

If you're really worried about a wood stock, the best protection is the safe.

I've finished quite a few stocks using Art's epoxy method, and it works really darn well. It would take a more experienced eye than mine to tell it from a fine hand rubbed finish, and to honest it looks better than some hand rubbed finishes in that there seems to be more depth.

I have a Bastogne stocked 270 that was done by a Guild member several years ago. During our A zone season here in CA I was chasing a buck when the clouds opened up a little. It wasn't raining hard, and given that killing the buck was more important to me (I didn't, by the way), I didn't think much about protecting the rifle. I did wipe it down when I got back to the truck.

Two days later I pulled the rifle out of the safe to head up to the ranch again and found that it had water spots all over it. Looking directly at it you could hardly tell, but looking at it from an angle it looked like a leopard.

Needless to say, I was less than impressed with the finish the ACGG maker used, even though he bragged constantly about how good it was.

Luckily Duane Wiebe gave me some good advice and I refinished the stock to better than new.

I have a friend in his late '70s, a retired school principal and he has been finishing the wood stocks he makes as a hobby and hunted most of BC with for decades, with oil over an epoxy filler for over 30 years. This, is not some "new" technique and while it CAN produce a nice result, it STILL will not give the stability that one finds in a good synthetic stock.

I have had laminated stocks completely hogged out and filled with Devcon and then the epoxy-warmed wood technique and then sprayed with Rustoleum gritty floor finish. I prefer this to anything for rifles used in real cold, that is sub-zero farenheit, but, in wet like BC today, give me a Micky or Rimrock or Brown and nothing I know of will make any wooden handle as stable as these are.

If you're going to fool with epoxy finishes, try West System 207. It's a thin epoxy and formulated to be used as a sealer/filler coat before proceeding to other finishes. It can be used to build layers in and of itself (it sands about like varnish) and looks quite good as such. We use it (primarily for the brightwork on boats- that's the varnished exterior wood trim for you non-boaters!) as a sealer coat and finish up with about 8-10 coats of good quality spar varnish (such as Epifanes) primarily for the UV protection (epoxy has little). Such treatment can be counted on to look good a year later after being in a marine environment 365/24/7. Nothing we found will last longer than that before we start thinking about sanding and varnishing again. Note: epoxies used as a final finish are very hard and won't move with the wood (and it will move), developing cracks as a consequence. It's poor UV protection probably has something to do with that also. In other words, epoxy alone as a barrier coating will likely fail with time. It's best used as an undercoat to seal the wood and fill pores, sanding back within an angel's whisker of the bare wood surface.

I've used that approach on gunstocks and it works nicely there too. Sealing/filling with West System 207 beats any of the regular epoxies.

When failure isn't an option ; IMO ;Any of these are nearly impossible to exceed beauty or protection factors when properly applied over dry wood surfaces . Most are also suitable over plastic, metal ? Ect. .


Any Clear finishes available too the general consumer , don't come tougher than these types listed

http://www.bona.com/Global/Cou...bro%204045%20NEW.pdf

Floor finishes are easy too apply an Tough on abrasion and come in a variety of gloss factors High gloss to mat .


This type of material is what I personally use on my stocks ; However it's Nasty and controlled therefore may not be available too the general public as it requires special licensing and containment requirements . Aspirated isocyanate is a Killer literally !
The 04 Series are chemically cured, two-component polyurethane topcoats suitable for exterior application on Military ground support equipment. Component A contains the pigment and polyester resin. Component B is a clear, non-pigmented aliphatic isocyanate prepolymer, which acts as a hardener or curing agent for Component A. When the 04 Series polyurethane topcoats are used over MIL-PRF-23377 or MIL-PRF-85582 epoxy primers, they provide protection against weathering, humidity and salt spray. The cured films are resistant to jet fuels, lubricating oils and hydraulic fluids. The 04 Series polyurethane topcoats also meet current standards for high / low temperature flexibility and impact resistance.

All the below listed are available too the general public .

http://www.awlgrip.com/support...ages/Brightwork.aspx
System II Ultimate Exterior Brightwork System - Awlspar/Awlbrite Clear

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/...andolphcoatings.html
Randolph EV400
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cs/epoxy.html
Useful items bedding material Ect. .

http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa/...finishes/search.aspx
Interlux Perfection® is a high-gloss two-part polyurethane finish. Clear is available .

http://www2.dupont.com/Directo...iation_Coatings.html

http://www.endura.ca/
Endura industrial coatings originated out of Canada and has outstanding industrial off shore track record.

To the best of my knowledge the above products ares till manufactured with the highest quality
ingredients and unlike automotive products of similar like appearances , these don't contain cheap acrylic fillers !

After 35 years of formulating urethane's epoxies adhesives sealants Ect. Ect.and actual field applications as well as instructional training seminars ,coupled with compiling
necessary data for exposure ( MSDS ) shelf and service life of intended materials usages .

Fact ; Ultimate protection comes from a High gloss finish ; it can be hand rubbed to dull or to appear as a High quality oil rubbed finish ,again properly applied it has outstanding appearance and protection !.

I used Marc Stokeld's technique, from his published paper "Finishing Gun Stocks With Acraglas", to refinish this wood stock. It turned out about as durable a finish as I've used.





Back in my days when I was squirt boating, we made custom paddles and used West System exclusively. It held up to some hard knocks against rocks. But when we used it on paddles, we'd have it built up well above the surface. Done that way on a wood stock, it would look like a thickly covered candy apple. Not sure how much more durable it would be over Acraglas if just built up to the surface and cut back to look like a traditional finish.

This report is about a rifle I refinished for a customer two years ago using PPG catalyzed urethane automotive clearcoat on a Weatherby. After two trips to Africa, the finish is still looking good. I brush on 2-4 coats, wet sand between coats, buff and done. Anyone else out there using this product?

quote:

Mike in Michigan
one of us

Posted 23 October 2010 02:28 Hide Post
This report is about a rifle I refinished for a customer two years ago using PPG catalyzed urethane automotive clearcoat on a Weatherby. After two trips to Africa, the finish is still looking good. I brush on 2-4 coats, wet sand between coats, buff and done. Anyone else out there using this product?


Mike Ryan - Gunsmith

Mike ; I used to use several different brand names of automotive products Dupont Valspar PPG Ditzler

Sherwin-Williams Endura on and on . With being associated in the industry I've tried 98.9 % of all available finishes at one time or another .

I personally like Akzo Nobel ( I'm some what prejudice as I worked for them many years ) and Deft Aviation products are among the finest and ( Most durable manufactured ).

The others I've listed are Right next to these in terms of quality and durability , as most industrial or Marine finishes are formulated for an aggressive environment , therefore more durable than Automotive types .Automotive finishes use a less expensive acrylic filler instead of 100% Urethane.

I normally use a Binks SV or Optima 900 LVLP detail spray unit. For my airbrush setup I purchased a German unit , it's without a doubt the finest I've ever seen or used ( Harder & Steenbeck ) . Once I started using that Airbrush I tossed all my other brush units in a drawer and they haven't seen material since . Fan adjust from literally a pencil width too .500" with one tip and there are wider and different tips .

I again prefer spray over brush only because it produces a fabulous finish ,with the least amount of
fuss and final compound de-glossing .

For knock down I use mostly " 3M Finesse it " and or rottenstone . Meguiar’s sent me some stuff for evaluation a while back Scratch X or something like that haven't used it yet.

I have so much 3M product it's doubtful I'll ever run out and it works !.

Sorry for the lapse in responding, but I've been getting other people's guns ready for hunting season. I use a brush in spite of the extra work because I'm concerned about getting that catalyzed finish in my lungs. I've got a beard and even a high quality respirator does not completely seal against my fuzzy face and neck.

well there you have it, no matter how much some folks love the tradition of wood and it natural feel, they ultimately bow down to advanced synthetics to best preserve & protect their little jewel.......

My personal rifle has eleventy gazillion coats of hand rubbed oils of various brand names, mostly boiled linseed and Tru-Oil, applied over the last 50 years. Just an old Remington, but it's mine.