Care and feeding of wooden stocks

nowarningshot said:
When you don't maintain them, it comes to a point where refinishing is needed. Often rubbed or scratched areas look different. So that's where i refinish...mottled, birthmarks, major dings, different colour between butt and fore stocks, filling bubba holes.....you get the idea.
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Oh I get it, but not the question..... just sayin'
 
All good suggestions.

I’ll add to it.....if you want to prevent wood from drying out, ensure your guns are stored in an a place with the appropriate humidity. If your safe is in a super dry place for prolonged periods of time, your stocks will dry out. If they are stored in an area of high humidity, you also run the risk of getting rust on the metal.

Dont underestimate the importance of properly controlled humidity
 
I see Lee Valley still sells the crystalline conservator's wax stuff, and at a comparatively bargain price. Also, for the record when I'm talking about applying walnut oil, it's done by wetting the thumb at the end of the bottle and rubbing that in, later wiping off any excess, so no danger of it creeping in anywhere. And it is a natural part of the wood, at least if the wood is walnut.
 
Having both the Renaissance wax and the Lee Valley Conservator's wax I am pretty sure they are not the same. The Renaissance wax IMO is better for wood it isn’t as hard as the Lee valley wax.

The good news is that if you don’t like either wax a simple spray of g96 will remove most traces of it ever being there. Neither wax works well on blued steel.

Both are very mild not much of a firearm wax for protection in the elements good for gun safe long term storage.

I use it on hi carbon blades works well for this purpose.
 
JIMMY 808 said:
Having both the Renaissance wax and the Lee Valley Conservator's wax I am pretty sure they are not the same. The Renaissance wax IMO is better for wood it isn’t as hard as the Lee valley wax.

The good news is that if you don’t like either wax a simple spray of g96 will remove most traces of it ever being there. Neither wax works well on blued steel.

Both are very mild not much of a firearm wax for protection in the elements good for gun safe long term storage.

I use it on hi carbon blades works well for this purpose.
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Have you or has anyone tried it on an oiled wood non varnish finish?. A little pricy to experiment with, both re the financial investment in the gun and the investment in the little can of wax.
 
I use wax on English style hand rubbed oil finished stocks.

The three gunstock stockers I have deal with unanimously encourage the use of wax to protect stock finishes. So do most on the DoubleGun forums, the most authoritative place for advice on the care of vintage SxS, wherever country they come from. The DG forum includes members who are active and retired members of the London and Birmingham gun trade sharing their knowledge. While I use Conservators Wax from Lee Valley, it's also clear that what counts is to use wax, not oil. As long as the wax doesn't contain harmful additives (most common with automotive waxes) it doesn't really matter which one you pick. Find one you like and go to it.
 
Big Bad said:
Have you or has anyone tried it on an oiled wood non varnish finish?. A little pricy to experiment with, both re the financial investment in the gun and the investment in the little can of wax.
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Yes I have, both the wax’s are extremely mild they are museum grade.

To me the feed and wax stuff is what to avoid citrus’s are acidic that’s assuming they are not a chemical cocktail that would likely be worse.
 
canvasback said:
I use wax on English style hand rubbed oil finished stocks.

The three gunstock stockers I have deal with unanimously encourage the use of wax to protect stock finishes. So do most on the DoubleGun forums, the most authoritative place for advice on the care of vintage SxS, wherever country they come from. The DG forum includes members who are active and retired members of the London and Birmingham gun trade sharing their knowledge. While I use Conservators Wax from Lee Valley, it's also clear that what counts is to use wax, not oil. As long as the wax doesn't contain harmful additives (most common with automotive waxes) it doesn't really matter which one you pick. Find one you like and go to it.
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That's a really good point. I've been using food grade oil with a bee's wax additive on the maple island top for a number of years. I started out just using straight mineral oil and the problem with that s that it takes forever to dry so a week later when you set a piece of paper on the top, within an hour or so the paper has soaked up oil. Then I started melting bee's wax into the mineral oil and that stopped the oil from staying wet and being absorbed by items set on the top, a huge improvement. these days I buy oil that already has bee's wax in it and it works well. Time to incorporate bee's wax into oil finishes on guns I think....
 
I use Lee Valley Conservator's Wax. The little tin will last years (depending of course on hoe many guns you are waxing).

But while we are talking wood care and double guns, please store your guns muzzle down.
 
ninepointer said:
I use Lee Valley Conservator's Wax. The little tin will last years (depending of course on hoe many guns you are waxing).

But while we are talking wood care and double guns, please store your guns muzzle down.
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It's early and I had to duckduckgo that one. My oldest SXS has some stains where the forend meets the barrels, but I'm not sure that wouldn't have happened anyway, because of the large contact area. Leave just a thin coat of oil or use wax or muzzle down is the way to go I suppose.
 
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Big Bad said:
It's early and I had to duckduckgo that one. My oldest SXS has some stains where the forend meets the barrels, but I'm not sure that wouldn't have happened anyway, because of the large contact area. Leave just a thin coat of oil or use wax or muzzle down is the way to go I suppose.
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However thin the coat of oil is, it will migrate down to the wood when stored muzzle up. Leaving the metal unprotected and the wood with oil doing it's best to soften it over time. The only thing that stops the oil migration are horizontal surfaces like for example the action face when stored muzzle up.

One of the problems is that the people who designed everything from the guns themselves to the products used to clean and protect to the design of safe interiors.....none of them expected guns to last 100-150 years. So never imagined problems appear for vintage guns. My vintage guns typically arrive in quite a bit less than pristine condition. They have been used, abused and ignored for decades at a time. Currently just about everything I have is pre WWII and most are pre 1925. The oldsters are from 1885 through 1900.

With the except of renewed CCH, addressed currently in another thread, the object of my restorations and care is to give them the best chance at another 100 years of effective service. So that means researching and applying best practices of care once the restoration has occurred. And it means no shortcuts in the restoration process. I can think of no better source of best practices than actual London and Birmingham gunmakers who have spent 40-50 years making and restoring fine London and English guns. So that's whose advice I seek and trust. And when I am discussing work with a Canadian smith I am judging his proposed approach against what I have learned from my discussions with gunmakers in London and Birmingham. We all know that in NA, there almost is no better recommendation for a SxS smith than that he is of English background and learned his trade in London or Birmingham. Whether it is David Trevallian or Nick Makinson, those men arrived on our shores competent in both understanding and skill.
 
canvasback said:
However thin the coat of oil is, it will migrate down to the wood when stored muzzle up. Leaving the metal unprotected and the wood with oil doing it's best to soften it over time. The only thing that stops the oil migration are horizontal surfaces like for example the action face when stored muzzle up.

One of the problems is that the people who designed everything from the guns themselves to the products used to clean and protect to the design of safe interiors.....none of them expected guns to last 100-150 years. So never imagined problems appear for vintage guns. My vintage guns typically arrive in quite a bit less than pristine condition. They have been used, abused and ignored for decades at a time. Currently just about everything I have is pre WWII and most are pre 1925. The oldsters are from 1885 through 1900.

With the except of renewed CCH, addressed currently in another thread, the object of my restorations and care is to give them the best chance at another 100 years of effective service. So that means researching and applying best practices of care once the restoration has occurred. And it means no shortcuts in the restoration process. I can think of no better source of best practices than actual London and Birmingham gunmakers who have spent 40-50 years making and restoring fine London and English guns. So that's whose advice I seek and trust. And when I am discussing work with a Canadian smith I am judging his proposed approach against what I have learned from my discussions with gunmakers in London and Birmingham. We all know that in NA, there almost is no better recommendation for a SxS smith than that he is of English background and learned his trade in London or Birmingham. Whether it is David Trevallian or Nick Makinson, those men arrived on our shores competent in both understanding and skill.
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I've long known that the best way to store long arms is in the horizontal position but thanks to C68 virtually no one has the room to do that anymore and also stay within the law, especially with R and P classes. As far as butt down goes, I once bought an older O/U, a safe queen whose action had partially locked up due to lube running down and hardening inside the receiver, probably led to an extra good deal for me but obviously not ideal. Remembering that, I guess muzzle-down is the next best alternative to horizontal. My instinct though is that if the floor is at all damp you could end up rusting the muzzle, also that no air can circulate inside the barrel, something I learned is a necessity when trying to keep my first single shot from losing blue and rusting (was never possible without grease, it being cheap crap).

Clearly it's time for that secure gun room/vault that many of us dream of; there's actually a basically unused room here I could use but co-opting the space and making the necessary alterations would lead to some family trouble. Maybe sell it to the loved ones as a safe room?
 
Ultimately there's no such thing as a gun, just a collection of wood and metal arranged in a certain fashion. It may sound pedantic but is crucial to my way of thinking. Renwax was designed for metal. Beeswax is traditional. The practical difference between the two is very little as proven by the condition of many guns produced prior Renwax' invention; beeswax is also microcrystalline. The big advantage to Renwax is probably it's naptha carrier; Renwax is mostly naptha. If there was any issue it would arise with the interaction of Renwax over the long term with ingredients found in the actual wood finish itself. My primary concern would be clouding if overused on traditional wood finishes, or the thinning and transmission of unwanted gun oils over the stock wood. My personal wipedown is a touch of lamp oil on a bit of clean cloth, with the expectation that refinishing is certain at some point.

It is my opinion that most traditional knowledge died in the first war.
 
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Dogfish858 said:
Ultimately there's no such thing as a gun, just a collection of wood and metal arranged in a certain fashion. It may sound pedantic but is crucial to my way of thinking. Renwax was designed for metal. Beeswax is traditional. The practical difference between the two is very little as proven by the condition of many guns produced prior Renwax' invention; beeswax is also microcrystalline. The big advantage to Renwax is probably it's naptha carrier; Renwax is mostly naptha. If there was any issue it would arise with the interaction of Renwax over the long term with ingredients found in the actual wood finish itself. My primary concern would be clouding if overused on traditional wood finishes, or the thinning and transmission of unwanted gun oils over the stock wood. My personal wipedown is a touch of lamp oil on a bit of clean cloth, with the expectation that refinishing is certain at some point.

It is my opinion that most traditional knowledge died in the first war.
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All one has to do is look at the guns produced by Sauer, Simpson and August Schuler in the immediate post war years of 1919 to 1930, Or any British maker of the same era, to know that's not true. Most aficionados of vintage SxS consider the Golden Age to be roughly 1895 to 1914, with the years 1919 through 1930 following a close second.
 
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