Stock finish - what is your preference?

L

ligonierbill

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I have pretty much always used some variation of boiled linseed oil, starting with a Laurel Mountain product from Chambers, a lot of Tru-Oil, and lately purchased "Lin-Speed" from TOTW. It's traditional, and I have not had any issues.

In reading more about practices "back in the day" I found that a number of makers used good old varnish. So on a recent plain jane myrtle stock for a Remington 700 I used Ace Hardware spar varnish, gloss no less. It looks pretty good, and I'm thinking it will provide better weather protection. (This is a hunting rifle.)

Within a couple months, I will be finishing a Richards AAA myrtle stock for a Winchester M70. While also a hunter, this long barreled 220 Swift is not likely to get dragged through laurel and "pretzel brush". A little rain and snow is all it's likely to face. So, what is your opinion?
 
I used a "tung oil finish", which I've seen called "wiping varnish", as while it does have some tung oil in it, it's not pure tung oil.
It's applied by wiping on with a cloth, no surprise, and while it looks nice and seems pretty durable, it apparently doesn't penetrate much, as true oil finishes are supposed to, but it was easy to apply, and I'm not rough on my stocks, so it was a good choice for me.
 
Always; Choices

It looks pretty good, and I'm thinking it will provide better weather protection. (This is a hunting rifle.)
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While I have used a limited variety, weather protection is still my priority on my hunters. I have mostly used Birchwood-Casey, Tru-Oil. On alternate choices, I have used Polys and others with very good results and fairly easy to work with but not sure on protection. I also refinish furniture and house trim but that's a different ball-game. ..... :cool:

I have no doubt that there are other finishes equal to or better that Birchwood-Casey but I'm use to this product and know how to work it. ... :)

Be Safe !!!
 
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Had a bushcrafter tell me about a mix for tool handles. I have used it with great success. 1 part boiled linseed oil, 1 part turpentine, 1 part pine tar. Great stuff. Apply it till it wont take any more. Then reapply as needed.
 
MinWax Tung Oil Finish .

Tru-Oil is a linseed oil based finish and I used it for 40 years ...
After finishing a antique Golden Oak Table and 6 chairs with MinWax Tung Oil Finish I realized how nice a finish the Tung Oil was ... I much prefer it to Tru-Oil.

For the last 25 years all my stocks have been finished in the Tung Oil Finish with beautiful results . I like the way you can brush , or wipe on coats and it leaves a lovely sheen or you can rub the finish down with rottenstone and oil .
What I realy like is how it truely dries !
Say what you want Linseed Oil never realy dries ... in hot humid Louisiana weather it can get "tacky" ... I hate that .
MinWax Tung Oil Finish has driers and hardeners and will dry and form a durable finish but it can be easily touched up ... Great Stuff !
Gary
 
I have a few "favorite finishes".

TruOil, of course. It's easy to use and easy to touch up, and it gives a nice color and depth of finish that you can't get from poly finishes.

Brownells' "Acra-Coat for Wood", a good, strong, easy to use eppoxy finish for wood. Makes the wood absolutely rock hard. Easy to use, but use a spirit stain under the finish because it will make the wood look plain, no figure or grain contrast. I've used this on rifles for the past 30 years, it is a tough finish.

WaterLox is the last one. Get the solvent-based one, not water-based. Easy to put on, easy to maintain, and waterproof, but it gives wood a peculiar brownish, orange-ish, reddish color, very easy to spot if you know what I mean, but low gloss shine like European rifles. Since it's all oil, it will make the grain stand out.
MinWax Tung Oil Finish
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It might look OK, but there's little or no tung oil in most tung oil finishes, they're mostly poly.
Had a bushcrafter tell me about a mix for tool handles
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Most of those old BLO/turpentine/varnish recipes look faded after a while. And I don't like putting my face on something that smells that strong. But put a bit of paste wax o them and they perk right back up.
 
Tung Oil.

BLO decomposes into nasty, dark, stinky goo. BLO is gross.
I won't even put it on milsurp stocks that got soaked in it as standard maintenance while in service.

Tung Oil does none of the above. Adds a very slight, but attractive golden tone to lighter grain. Brings out color and grain. Really makes chatoyance pop.
Easily diluted with mineral spirits for deeper penetration or lighter coats.
Easily touched up if damaged. Doesn't look like garbage and require sanding if you get a bad coat (I'm looking at you, Tru-Oil).

Finish it off, if desired, with diluted Formby's Tung Oil finish. I prefer Satin, but have only been able to find Gloss for some time.

Will take wax just fine, as well - if you're the type to wax guns before hunting season.
 
I am redoing a stock as a test before I touch my expensive gun with Timberluxe. A 1/2oz bottle will do several shotgun stocks
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I have some time to think about it: 6 - 7 weeks for the stock to arrive and 6 years worth of sanding (just kidding) before any finish touches the wood.
 
Gloss, Semi-gloss , Satin, or whatever.

In addition to weather service, there is the finish coat surface. It all depends on the piece. I do not like a Browning type gloss finish, on any of my stocks. A number of years ago, I contacted Birchwood-Casey to see if they offered a semi-gloss and they did not. If you encounter a gloss that you don't care for, you can buff it down with 0000 steal wool, then apply some carnoba type wax. I work with a range of stocks and woods and they all take a different appication. I even have a dedicated finish for my M/L RamRods. ..... ;)

Be Safe !!!
 
Multiple coats of teak oil inside, outside, and between the butt pad and stock. In other words, every square inch of wood.

I use Starbright teak oil.

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Over the years, I’ve used Linseed Oil in a hand rubbed finish. All the rubbing took weeks, but it sure was pretty. Too much labor involved. In later years, being a woodworker, I had on hand a lot of potential finishes. I used Minwax Antique Oil a few times. It really makes the wood look good and it’s easy to use, and you can wet-sand with it. Only issue is that it isn’t a film building finish and won’t be waterproof. Waterlox Original satin is what I’ve used most recently. It is a film builder (contains Tung Oil) and should be waterproof, though I haven’t had that rifle in the rain. It’s a bit more work than the Minwax or Danish Oil, but it looks really good. I apply it in thin coats, with a small foam brush. I hang the stock from my workshop ceiling to apply the Waterlox, being careful to avoid runs. The more coats you apply, the better it looks. Like with Minwax or Danish oil, the Waterlox looks awful after the first coat. Second coat, and it looks better. Third coat and beyond, you think to yourself, that “dang, that looks good”.

Now…if you are gonna use the Waterlox satin, mix it carefully and often to make sure the satin is evenly spread. When finished with a coat, close the can up after shooting in some canned nitrogen to get the oxygen out. If not, that stuff will skin over rapidly. Get the smallest can of Waterlox that you can find. You don’t need much.

If you go with the Minwax, do the wet sanding and wipe off excess as the instructions say. It’s easy to apply and gives a finish that is “touchable”, in that you want to run your hand over it. I have used it on a lot of indoor furniture and love the look and feel. It doesn’t hide the wood under a layer of finish and won’t change the color other than darkening it a bit. You can wipe the bare wood with alcohol to see what the finish will look like.
 
Based on Bob Flexner's extensive writing on the subject:

RLO and BLO are at the bottom of the list for protection. If you've been out in the woods with a rifle with a BLO finished stock in the rain, you'll likely have had occasion to notice that finish takes on a watermark relatively easily. In other words, water permeates it relatively easily. Tung oil is better, but not until you get at least five coats on, and it is slow to polymerize, taking a week or so for one coat to dry.

Watco Danish Oil and Minwax Tung Oil Finish or Deft Danish Oil Finish are all oil/varnish blends. Their environmental protection level is medium, but if you want a finish that looks close to an oil finish and you don't care for gloss, these are a good compromise. I've used them by applying successive coats with 320, 400, and 600-grit wet/dry sandpaper and then a rag to wet the wood, and then wiping off the excess half an hour later. The sandpaper knocks whiskers down as you go, giving a good final finish.

Tru Oil and the Wiping Varnishes are polymerized oil finishes. These have been heated in a pressure vessel in the absence of air, causing polymerization that otherwise happens during drying to get partially completed and to create molecule lengths that are reasonably controlled. This not only dries faster (because there is less drying to do to complete polymerization), it creates the best water-resistant barrier as they create a more consistent molecular barrier. The drawback, from some points of view, is that polymerized oils produce a glossy finish if you don't use a flattening additive. I've not tried that, so I don't know if there are shortcomings to it or not.
 
An older friend of mine had a custom stock built for his Kreighoff K-80 shotgun; the finish was 32 coats of Truoil; not only did that stock have water bead up like a newly waxed car, it had such depth to the wonderful figuring of this top end piece of walnut. IIRC, the truoil coats took about 4 months to apply all of them.
 
My favorite are the satin oil based finishes named above.

Next, I want to try a high gloss epoxy finish like sold for bar tops! Color underneath and bar top finish on top!
 
Tung oil here. Depending on the project, I use pure tung oil [Asian tung, not South American] and cut it with citrus solvent as needed. Three coats base plus more depending on the desired finish.
Watco Tung Finish is very similar to Tru-Oil. Most all of the 'branded' tung oil finishes have a drop of tung oil plus blo or similar oil, dryers, and thinned with mineral spirits. They are not bad finishes and are easier to use than pure tung. Minwax also markets a 'Wiping Poly' finish that I have used on table tops and am trying on gun wood. Simple and durable with an okay finish.
None of the oil finishes have a very high UV resistance, but unless you leave your gun outside for weeks, that's not too important.
 
Yep, as I mentioned above, the Tru-oil and wiping varnish are partially pre-polymerized, which shortens drying time and improves water-proof properties. Things called "Tung Oil Finishes" often have zero tung oil in them. The name comes from the resemblance of the end result to a tung oil finish rather than it actually being tung oil.

UV-resistant additives make a finish softer, which is problematic for gun handling.

I recommend giving Bob Flexner a read.
 
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