Most durable wood stock finish

T

tommy88

CGN Regular
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Toronto
If you could imagine finishing a wood stock for a guide in the yukon that would be beaten around on a quad or back of the argo, and would be scratched up on your backpack and branches, and would be getting rained on a few times a week.

Some would suggest poly, although it cracks and keeps water in. Some would go with linseed oil, but it's a soft finish. What would you finish it with?
 
start with 3-4 coats of straight tung oil allowing a couple of days between coats.. two shallow dishes one with varathane or spar varnish and one with tung oil. Dip a lint free rag in the oil then the spar and rub into a area the size of your hand, continue with a bit of overlap until entire gun is done, let sit 24 hours and repeat..

I often do 4 coats then lightly buff with a fine scotch brite pad and finish with a final coat of tung..

I have had guns still looking good with this finish after 10 years of abuse.. annual touch up with tung helps and you can hit with the scotch brite pad and do a new spar/tung top coat anytime.
 
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Linseed oil gets really hard after enough years, but it dries slow, and you need it pretty thick.

I’ve also used urethane hard wood floor finishes with success.
 
Everyone talks about Tung Oil, but even multiple coats of it is not a good water-repellent finish. It is very easy to touch up after it gets scratched or wet once it dries.

Ted
 
the same stuff the old rem 700s had, RKW, also known as bowling pin pin finish. I'd look into bar top polyurethane, that stuff is durable as heck.

On a side note though, if I was a guide in the Yukon, no matter what gun I owned, id probably call up Wild Cat Custom Stocks out of Edmonton area and have him build me a synthetic stock. Something super light, synthetic and durable, so you can beat it up all you want.
 
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