A year or so ago, I asked opinions of Scherell's Shaftol. Thanks for the responses.
I've been working with this finish, mostly on
wood knive handles and scales, just to see how it works. I figured that I should know a little more about it before I refinished an old, abused but very fine European gunstock.
After many knife scales and handles, found the finish to be very beautiful and durable.
I was working with raw wood. Mostly walnut and masur bjork (figured birch).
All the wood was polished to a shine with 0000 steel wool before application.
Even though I did lots of birch; the focus was on walnut, because I wanted to duplicate the color of the original old gunstock.
I found, and now understand that "shaftol" comes in two very different forms of composition. The tinted doesn't congeal. The "premium gold" congeals like "linspeed", only slower.
The final test results:
Walnut, sanded and brought to a shine with 0000.
Two applications of "shaftol" reddish brown.
Polished with 0000 to a shine.
Five applications, 24 hours apart with "shaftol" reddish brown. Again, polished to a shine.
Three applications of premium gold, hand rubbed and set aside four days. Polished to a shine with 0000. Two applications and set aside four days. Hand rubbed to a "dull" shine.
Rubbed with propolis and beeswax.
The finish is so beautiful, and hopefully durable.
The combination brought out beauty of this wood, that I can't explain.
Now, I will tackle this fine gunstock.
The wood is walnut with alternating light and dark figure straight through.
I have to chase the checkering before I finish.
I will post a photo when I finish.
Thank you again for your thoughts on schaftol.

I had checked out scherell's shaftol for a redish stain but found Laurel Mtn "cherry" stain that turned out to work great also.

Did shaftols have instructions for useing steel wool???