I have been working on my Martini stock for the past week and have a question. I put a coat of sealer/filler on and topped it with a coat of 50/50 truoil. Allowed it to dry two days between coats and lighty sanding between, have applied my third coat of oil uncut. The question is how many coats would be normal before rottonstone. Ya I know its been ask before but thought I would try again. I am allowing a week to dry before doing anything else.

Depends; I usually put one or two coats and do it twice. Depends on how porous your wood is too. Each one is different.

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Originally posted by Rolland:
I have been working on my Martini stock for the past week and have a question. I put a coat of sealer/filler on and topped it with a coat of 50/50 truoil. Allowed it to dry two days between coats and lighty sanding between, have applied my third coat of oil uncut. The question is how many coats would be normal before rottonstone. Ya I know its been ask before but thought I would try again. I am allowing a week to dry before doing anything else.

If the pores were completely filled, I would say 4-5 coats of 50:50 mix before rottenstone and linseed oil. And then with a light touch! That is if there are no pores visible. Pores will yield glossy craters in the finish.

Tru-oil can be re-applied over a tacky coat and this eliminates the need to sand between coats. It will dry hard all the way through. This is a trait of all polyurethane finishes. I once laid down 10 coats on a stock in 5 hrs. Dried perfectly.

Ok thanks I think I will see what happens when its dry maybe one more coat. I am a metalsmith not a woodworker so I kinda struggle on the wood part at times. Thats why I don't do others wood just mine.
I am working on a 70's NOS Fajen stock with Cocobolo caps was describes as " Aristocrat style roll over stock with a large teardrop grip cap" . The walnut is some of the hardest I have seen. DeHass has a photo of a Martini Cadet in his book showing this stock and I was lucky enough to find one, I really like the style.

The secret to a fine finish is wet sanding between coats, and at least overnight drying but not more than 12 hours as the finish needs to interlock or interlink. You can go high gloss or satin egg shell (my choice) you will know when the finish is right to start using a mix of oil and rotten stone, and if your wrong on that, go back to wet sanding..High gloss means wet sanding to 800 or even 1500 grt. wet or dry paper, a nice satin is 400 grit, then polish with the rotten stone very carefully, it is abrasive and can cut through a fine finish that's not cured, so let that last Wet or dry sanding dry for a few days then start the oil and rottenstone finish, when you get what your after then apply a good quality wax...Its not rocket science and their is no magic finish, it hard work carefully done. Keep in mind at any point you can go back to any point in the process and start over...

I hate using pure Truoil. Always ended with thick uneven coats.

Thinning with Mineral spirits 50% or even thinner and applying with finger and wet sanding to 600 grit gave a great semi gloss finish.

Like Ray said over night drying is good.

I always wipe the excess oil and the wood dust slurry off - across grain first to fill pores and then with the grain to get a uniform finish and no streaks.

Ok I follow your advise and wet sanded and then today used rottonstone to do a light rub down. Put it together and got to run 10 or so rounds through it before the temp got too hot was 106 today. I may do some more work with the finish as there is a couple of spots.
I have wanted one of these with this stock for the last 20 years and finally found a stock. So I am happy happy happy.

That looks really nice! Great job. I bet it looks and feels far better when actually in hand.

Nothing like that "glow" effect of nice oil finished walnut.