I have now completed stripping the old poly finish from the stock. What type of oil finish should I use? I have used the oil finish from Birchwood Casey before, it seems a little sticky. Can anyone recommend something else?

Mick,
I have used both Watco and Minwax oil finishes with great success on both furniture and gun stocks. Both are usually available a your local hardware store or home center.
Lou

mick i would also reccomend minwax tung oil protective finsh is what i use good luck jake

I redid a stock with Minwax stain, and several coats of their urethane finish. Looks great.

I also have had good luck with Minwax, however I prefer the satin finish for any weapon used for hunting. I have a friend who refinished a stock with normal polyurethane and I could see a glare from a long ways away. Something to keep in mind. Also, it seems to me the satin finish takes a little longer to dry.

Everyone has their druthers, but oil finishes have two endearing qualities, they are easy, if time consuming to apply, and really bring out the depth and richness of the wood. I use about the same goo that I use on furniture (when ever I still have time to make any) Danish oil from Watco, with a final layer or two of tung oil if I want a little more "surface film". I once made up a "secret pot" of linseed oil and bees wax for a coffee table project, but in defference to the possibility of blowing the shop up, have since stuck with commercial brews.

I just did a Yugo Mauser original teak stock with this combo and am very happy with the results. Besides, all of that rubbing of the finish and polishing (Watco wax as a topcoat) seems to be good therapy.

It may need sealing first or you run the risk of the grain coming out on contact with the first drop of rain - this happened to me after weeks of rubbing oil in.

1894 is dead on! What I've always done is to seal before anything else. I mix spar varnish and naptha, or benzene, 50-50. If you can immerse the entire stock, particularly the end grain in the butt, action cutouts and forend tip, that pretty well completely seals the wood. Amazing how much of the mixture a piece of walnut will absorb! I usually do it twice, allowing several days for the first coat to dry well. I prefer a polymerized tung oil which dries quickly. It's difficult to obtain, but worth it. You can put several coats on in less than a week. Regular tung oil works but requires a bit more drying time between applications. Rubbing with rottenstone leaves a beautiful dull sheen when you have the depth you want. I'm anxious to try a Birchwood-Casey product called Truseal, or something like that, which is an oil and filler. I've seen a couple of stocks done with that and they are outstanding. With tung oil you can repair scratches and dings easily with no preparation. Just put a bit on, rub and put the gun away. Bob

The trouble with most oil finishes is that they just don't hold up all that well in inclimate weather, and stocks so finished are much more subject to picking up dings and assorted damage than they are with other finishes. A professional stockmaker told me one time that there's "no such thing as a good oil finish!" After getting linseed and tung oil finishes literally washed out of the wood pores on elk and late-season goat hunts, I agree with him completely. They might look good in the house after they've cured, but they look lousy after a week of rain and wet snow......

A number of bright, astute stockmakers do not employ traditional oil finishes: Earl Milliron, before he retired recently, used an epoxy finish that is both beautiful and tough. Al & Roger Biesen prefer a Varathane-type finish that is truly tough and weather-proof. D'Arcy Echols and Gene Simillion are using an almost revolutionary high-tech finish that LOOKS like an oil finish (it's anything BUT oil), yet these guys take finished stocks into the shower day after day for testing, and without damage.

Of the oil-looking finishes I've used myself, Flecto Varathane Plastic Oil has been the best and toughest by far. You just have to have enough patience to let each coat dry completely, and fill the pores clear up to the surface of the wood. I used about fifty coats (I wet-sanded every other coat down to the surface of the wood)on the last stock I worked on. I then let the finished stock cure for about four months before I used it.

AD

Have finished several stocks from pistol to rifle and shotguns, and have used primarily tung oil or linseed oil. Have always used 8-10 coats and never had one washout even in elk season in the northwest. I have done two with carnuba wax, just to experiment. The shotgun that was done has had eight hunting seasons and still looks the same as the day I finished it. It is a lot more work, but can be very durable.

Ditto dartonvpr. Plus, tung oil IS waterproof and made more so in formulations which contain urethane and drying agents. Bob

Chem-Pack Pro Custom Oil available from Brownell's. The best I have used by far.

I've used them all and about decided
trueoil is as good as any of them properly applied...Pete Grisel and Al Lind say put on all the wood will take (Trueoil cut 50/50 with Mineral Spirits), wipe it off and then set the stock aside for 30 days...I tried it and it really works, then proceed with the wet sanding for 5 or 10 coats.....Great finish and reccommended by the best.

I have used and like Flecto, but it is terribly slow filling, but can be filled with trueoil filler prior to application of Flecto...Flecto has tueanol and thats a cancer causing carcinagen and that bothers me a little....

I have found most finishes work, IF properly applied and that is the secret....Linspeed is great and Rose Oil, used by Jerry Fisher is also a fine finish...

I have about dedcided any oil modified urathane is about the nicest finish available..

I also like the Minwax Satin Poly finishes...I use this on the laminated stocks I'm playing with lately, I had Mel Smart laminate some very good one sided Turkish that I couldn't sell, beatifull on one side and plain on the other...He put the pretty wood on the outside and the plain in the middle, really is looking nice....I should have it completed in a week or so (my 9.3x64 Mauser)

Today we have the best finishes in history....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

I recently finished a Fajen select walnut stock I had picked up from a midway close-out some time ago. I used tung oil. My results are very satisfactory and brought out the fiddleback in the wood beautifully. My procedure was this: Rub in a generous amount of Tung Oil, wait 24 hours, rub stock with 0000 steel wool. I repeated this process six times. MM

Just a hint for what its worth..If you use steel wool you will put tiny particles of steel in the finish and these will rust in time and pop out of the finish...Look at the stock that has been steel wooled under a magnafying glass...I suggest that one dip his very fine sand paper in a mix of finish and Mineral spirits and wet sand the stock after each several coats as described in most directions and finish it with rotten stone and oil....Like I said for what its worth.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

I never thought about steel wool getting into the finish but that sure sounds logical. The steel wool was an idea I picked up reading a book by Dean Grennel years ago. Upon close inspection of the stock I finished I cannot see any evidence of it, but for the most part the tung oil was "pulled" into the fiber of the wood and didn't build up on the surface of the wood like a polyurethane type finish I have used years ago by Birchwood Casey. Thanks for the good information Atkinson. MM

Ray's right about steel wool. A good alternative is bronze wool, which is available from Brownell's. I still think that wet sanding with 600 grit paper is the best way to work a finish back down, and this action also helps fill the pores.

AD

An even better alternative is those plastic pads, like Scotch Brite, that can be purchased inexpensively at a good auto paint supplier. They come in grits similar to steel wool and are distinguishable by different colors. There is a variety of them down to some pretty fine stuff. Bob

Bob 338,
Yes the scotch pads are a boone to the stockmaker..I use them with Rotten stone and oil after my final finish coat has dried for a week or so...Gives a nice flat, non-reflective finish...

I also use them to take the last coat of finish down to the wood, at which time I sometimes use a stain, then I apply a few thin final coats over that and continue as above, or now that the wood has a good seal of Polyurathane, I then finish the top with a Linseed oil rub or tung oil rub for looks to get that eggshell luster that only Linseed oil will produce..This seems to give me the best of both worlds..These stocks have held up very well over the years and a lick and promise with a little Linseed rub will restore them to new...I use Pilkingtons Linseed as it has dryers in it..

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray,

That's a great idea of linseed oil over a poly sealer, I'll have to try it.

Thanks for posting that one. Of course now I have to find something to refinish!

Mark,
Remember to use Pilkingtons Red Linseed oil with the dryers..Plain Linseed takes to long to cure, if ever. Use it sparingly and rub in in.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

I use linseed oil with Japan dryer. I let it set over night then rub it down with the WHITE scotch brite pad and hand rub another coat of linseed oil in. After about 25 coats it is tough and beautiful. Smokey

Birch-Casey makes a Stock Wax. It's carnuba based and makes a good top coat for an oil finish stock. Also good for the leather and gun metal.

Personally, I think that Kiwi neutral shoe wax is pretty much the same stuff. I've used both, but not on any "concours" guns.

Tung or linseed oil is like a furniture polish. The "traditional" furniture finishing method is "once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year . . . then about every six months."

Rub on and rub in with a soft cloth. Rub hard and briskly enough to generate some heat on the surface. This thins the oil and gets it into the wood pores.

If it gets rained on, you dry and apply oil then wax . . . just like a fine cabinet.

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PowderBurns Black Powder / Muzzle Loading Forum:

www.hotboards.com/plus/plus.mirage?who=powderburns

Exactly right, the heat generated from a serious rubbing is important. A tip from a cabinet maker friend, which I have used on the "base coats", is to apply carefull heat with a heat gun to drive out any moisture and assure good penetration. Heat gun in one hand, rag in the other.

Tung oil polymerizes as a double oxygen bond whereas boiled linseed is a single bond, chemically much less water resistant. FYI, tung oil was used from ancient times until "modern" times from China to Egypt in water proofing reed boats, contemporaneous records indicate that these boats could last 100 years and more, IN WATER. A post-WWII effort to grow Tung trees in our Gulf states was stopped when a 1950's hurricane destroyed the tree farms and "Big Chemical" swayed Americans with "better living through modern chemistry".
The key is many coats, starting with tung oil cut 50:50 with thinner for a soaking, deep penetrating coat or two, always with plenty of curing time to thoroughly polymerize the oil. Curing is more than drying. I have used ten coats applied over one month, each coat buffed matt with 0000 steelwool and old knit cotton shirts - lint blown clear with compressed air. Linseed oil will turn white as water penetrates, but my dozen or so tung oiled stocks appear "water proof" and attractive.
Serious finish damage is EASY to repair in the field, very unlike polyurethane.

quote:

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Originally posted by dartonvpr:
Have finished several stocks from pistol to rifle and shotguns, and have used primarily tung oil or linseed oil. Have always used 8-10 coats and never had one washout even in elk season in the northwest. I have done two with carnuba wax, just to experiment. The shotgun that was done has had eight hunting seasons and still looks the same as the day I finished it. It is a lot more work, but can be very durable.

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Hand rubbing an oil finish went out years ago....A hand rubbed oil finish consist of human flesh, dirt and oil mixture that tends to decay and rise out of the pores in time...Never was a decent finish and never will be..Never dried, not even with dryers. It only dried on top and never underneath.

Todays modern oil modified urathanes sprayed on or brushed and wet sanded to make a mud of finish and sawdust that is packed back into the pores until all is level, then you can top coat with built up layers for a gloss finish that is truly waterproof or knock the gloss off with polishing compound or rotten stone-oil mix and get the desired oil finish look...

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Found this old thread with my Mark X Express .375 in mind. It's a early 70's vintage in mint condition with a very nice piece of wood and fine checkering. The problem is the stock looks very dry and flat. I makes you just want to oil it. What to use and will the checkering clog. Suggestions. Many thanks.

Use linseed oil, wipe off the excess, clean the checkering with a fine brass suede brush, oil it too, wax when done. It will look great.

quote:

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Originally posted by Patrick:
Found this old thread with my Mark X Express .375 in mind. It's a early 70's vintage in mint condition with a very nice piece of wood and fine checkering. The problem is the stock looks very dry and flat. I makes you just want to oil it. What to use and will the checkering clog. Suggestions. Many thanks.

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That WHITE scotch brite pad is the way to go. Steel wool will also stain the light colored woods. YOu might have to rub a little harder but it's well worth the effort.