restoring a milsurp Question ----- tung oil or BLO?? ?

As to whether anyone else will notice the difference between Tung and BLO... Probably not, they're more likely to notice whether you did a good application.

But as I pointed out to my wife when I was detail sanding a part of some stick horses I was making to donate to a kindergarten class musical, when she asked "Will those kids even know the difference?"

My answer: "Doesn't matter. I'll know."

Both finishes, when done right, can provide an excellent end result.

BLO/Raw Linseed is "period correct" for Empire Enfields. And you will know.
 
BLO, if used properly, even the hardware store stuff, can be used to replicate an aged military finish. It will look just like a 100 year old raw linseed finish, minus dirt and crud. For that 'new' or refurbished look use Raw linseed, but dunk the wood in a warm linseed bath, pull it out and wipe the excess off. Your wood remains textured, easy to grip when wet, not shiny and retains it's moisture via the oil absorbed. I think this may be where the confusion between BLO and RLO comes from as the old stocks gain finish from the little bit of RLO left behind by their once in a while RLO applications over more than half a century it begins to look like a shiny BLO finish.
 
Okay, I got 'corrected' because Tung Oil has been around for a long time (roughly half as long as Linseed oil).

Perhaps you can tell me what type of ships were crossing the North Atlantic/South Atlantic/Indian Ocean/China Sea route to bring the things from the Orient?

There was darned little TRADE with the Orient until close to the end of the 18th Century. Even then, much of it was in the exclusive hands of the Dutch, who had much more valuable cargoes to carry to Europe than a bunch of nuts.

The Far Side of the World was not always 14 hours away with 3 meals and 2 snacks served en route. My great-grandfather took 4 MONTHS to do it in a Clipper.

Linseed Oil for British, European and Canadian rifles. Tung Oil for late-issue US pieces: Garands and so forth. Early US and Colonial pieces would have used Linseed Oil simply because they KNEW about it.... and the grew a lot of Flax: it makes Linen and is good in parritch.
 
THANKS good info all ...........ILL visit some local arts / craft shops to get lin seed oil ...........i should nt need much for 2 milsurp stocks ----------ill save the tung oil for a .22 im fixing up.
 
Good call NB,

I got my linseed from an art store. Great stuff they have there for reasonable prices.

One of my enfield stocks i recieved was as dry as the sahara and as blonde as Nick Lasheys Bum hair. I boiled the linseed oil (double boiled in mason jar), and used the heat gun to heat up the stock. Drank up tonnes of the stuff and turned the stock into a mahogany color. It was like watching a magic trick.
 
The stain for your fore end splice on the Ross will have to be alcohol or water based as your linseed oil will mix with the oil based stains and make a big mess. Ask me how I know! Ha ha!
 
As an old farm boy I always liked to see a flax field. It looked beautiful when the plants were in blue flower. The oil content is huge. When you walked thru a dead ripe flax field the plants would be about knee high and your pants would be wet with flax oil. There are some perils associated with flax. The straw is very tough and wiry and you need to be careful not to get it wound up around an axle. The straw is tough to work down after harvest, so a lot of people would just burn it. The straw has a high oil content and will burn hot as hades. You need to be careful in a bin full of flax seed as the seeds are very slippery and won't support you like wheat or another type of cereal crop. It was also a big portion of the Sunny Boy Cereal that a lot of us grew up on.

It's an old plant and has been cultivated for a long time in the middle east, Europe and the Americas. People learned that you can eat it, wear it, write on it, and preserve gunstocks with it. And now it's a health food. I take a capsule every day. I'd like to get some seeds to plant around the property.
 
I'm interested in using tung oil on a 30-30 wood set - a previous post indicated the first 2 coats were 50/50 tung oil and citrus solvent- I was unable to find a citrus solvent but I was hoping that I can use raw turpentine? Or just use 100 tung oil?
thanks
Dave
 
You have to mix and match colors to get it right. Takes little skill, more patience than anything. Basically what you try to do is stain the lighter wood to match the darker.
 
adanacdjm said:
I'm interested in using tung oil on a 30-30 wood set - a previous post indicated the first 2 coats were 50/50 tung oil and citrus solvent- I was unable to find a citrus solvent but I was hoping that I can use raw turpentine? Or just use 100 tung oil?
thanks
Dave
Click to expand...

You can also do an initial cleaning with mineral spirits, which is fairly gentle but will remove a lot of the old oil and finish. You might have to go over it twice. Wipe some mineral spirits, let sit for a few minutes, then gently rub with a cloth rag that's damp with mineral spirit. You'll be surprised at how much will come out without damaging the would itself.

The wood might get a bit of a "rough" feel to it, but don't sand it, that's just the grain as the wood shrinks a bit - as the mineral spirit evaporates, it will dry out the wood a fair bit.

Your first coat or two of Tung after cleaning will really soak in and the wood will "fill" back out and smooth itself out quite nicely. I like to got 24hrs between coats. After you let the second coat sit for 24 hours, buff thoroughly with either a cloth rag or soft wool buffing mitt before adding the next coat.

Specifically when you're applying the Tung it works out to:

Spread on a light coat with a rag, let sit for 20 minutes, wipe off excess, let set for 24 hours, repeat kind of process. After the second coat buff before applying the third and all subsequent coats. Repeat until you have the finish you want, anywhere from a clear mat sheen, to a high gloss.

It's a bit labour intensive, but once you've worked in 6 or 7 coats and have a really nice almost lacquered finish on it, you can ignore it essentially forever and ever after. And, as mentioned in another thread (I think in the General Discussion board), it will take anywhere from 6 months to a year for it to fully cure - but that's fine, it just means it's going to smell a bit. It will be largely set after 24 hours (feel dry to the touch), and there won't be anything preventing you from using it at that point.

Smellie can jump in and call me an idiot and recommend Linseed and the proper application thereof... Which I'll be happy to hear in detail because I do have an Enfield project in the works, and I'll be using Linseed for that, so I won't mind a bit him demonstrating my foolishness by clearly stating the Linseed process.
 
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