Stock finishing advice

R

rednekhuntr

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Amherstburg ON by way of Parry Sound ON
I've purchased a semi inletted walnut stock from Boyd's for my early model Winchester 88.
I'm looking for something to bring the grain out in the walnut, and be durable enough to hunt with. I'd like to avoid the "varnished look".
Treat me like I don't know anything. What do you suggest? Number of coats, drying time etc.
Any help would be appreciated
 
use a conditioner on the wood before you stain it.............then as many coats of stain as it takes to get your desired color contrast finished off with tung oil........lots of thin coats of tung oil........rub on, wait, rub off, let dry repeat........it will look like glass when your done and if you ever scratch it just add another coat of tung oil and the scratch is gone........
 
yodave said:
use a conditioner on the wood before you stain it.............then as many coats of stain as it takes to get your desired color contrast finished off with tung oil........lots of thin coats of tung oil........rub on, wait, rub off, let dry repeat........it will look like glass when your done and if you ever scratch it just add another coat of tung oil and the scratch is gone........
Click to expand...

Second that!!
 
there are many brands......minwax makes one, and they make tung oil, both are likely available at home depot........do not use a stain/finish one step finish, rather go with a paste stain.......
 
If you want to bring the grain out you can gently heat it up with a torch it will make the grain pop out. But make sure you leave it dry out for a while before finishing it since the propane flame will add some moisture to the stock. Tung oil or truoil both look nice.
 
He didn't say he wanted to raise the grain. He's looking to make the look of the grain pop with depth and clarity.

If you want to do an oil finish then staining isn't really an option. The stain will just be re-melted by the oil finish and it'll be scuffed up and go away. from the rubbing you do with the oil finish.

Before you even think you NEED a stain test the wood first. You can do this by dribbling on a solvent like low odor paint thinner and see what the wood looks like. The solvent will darken and clarify the grain a lot and it mimics what the wood will look like after you've rubbed on and buffed off a few coats of wood finishing oil.

If this isn't dark enough for you then your next option is to use a strong dye mixed in a strong and thin solvent that will pull the dye down deeply into the wood surface. Then oil finish over top of that.

I have not used Tru-Oil so I can't comment on it. But there are lots of folks that do like it and lots of examples of how on You Tube.

Myself I'm partial to the polymerized tung oil sold by Lee Valley. It's a pretty fast build to a nice low lustre oil finish. I find that 4 rubbed on and buffed off coats leaves me with a great looking job that resists weather for quite a few months. Or up to a year for wood that only sees the outdoors occasionally. A single recoat and buff restores the protection for another similar period.

The first coat should be thinned about 50-50 with some low odor paint thinner. Apply freely, let soak in for about 10 minutes re-wetting where it develops a dry look. At the end of 10 minutes wipe off the excess with paper towel.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE!-
Oily rags or paper towels must be set out thinly to dry. Packing them away in a bag is a recipe for them to burst into flame.

It happened to me last summer when a "helpful" buddy put some paper towels with some boiled linseed into a tied up plastic bag. Half way through our BBQ dinner we smelled smoke. The bag had burst into flame all by itself with no heat source other than the chemical content of the oil. Good thing it was out in the basement door foot well so no harm came to anything other than the poor tire on my wheelbarrow that was beside the bag.

The right way to dispose of them is to lay the towels and rags out and let them dry hard. Once dry you can toss 'em into the regular garbage.

OK, back to the stock work.

The first coat is so thin and goes in so far on the end grain that it'll take a few days to dry. In a cool place it might even take a week. In summer setting it out in the sun will dry it in a day or two. If you can put it inside on a sunny window sill that also helps. You'll notice when it's ready because in addition to feeling dry you'll notice that the tung oil smells a little different. At that point it's good for the next coat. This same change in the odor works for each additional coat.

I find that as the oil dries it raises a little of the wood fuzz. So I like to apply each coat with a firm rubbing from a tung oil wetted pad of OOOO steel wool from a paint store. But go VERY lightly with this over any checkering. Or better yet avoid the checkering. Instead use light but firm strokes from a tung oil wetted brass bristle brush on the checkering running with the diagonals. Don't "poke" the wire into the wood. Instead start from an edge and drag the bristles inward. This also avoids you scratching out past the borders and onto the smooth wood with the wires.

With the full strength second and on coats don't let it soak in as long. 5 minutes is fine. Rub off the excess briskly with paper towels so they stay mostly dry. Don't just spread the oil around. You're looking to pull off the excess. Don't let it build up a muddy and sticky surface coat.

Some folks like to use fine wetordry sandpaper for the first coat or two so the sanding dust mixed with the oil acts as a grain pore filler. If you do this use very little oil and don't rub it away. Instead spread it with the sandpaper and go for a sanded "burnished" look where you keep on polishing with the same patch of sandpaper as the oil starts to dry and thicken. By this time the sandpaper won't be sanding anymore. It'll be friction polishing the surface and filling the pores.

This can be a rather tricky method so you will want to find some similar types of wood and try it on that before you tackle the stock. Or try it out on some old Cooey or similar cheap rifle that has been begging for an intervention and attention.

I like to really work the oil into the end grain. If I can plug up the end grain then the machine oil used on the metals won't soak into the wood as readily and I might just avoid the dark oil stains at the meeting lines. So work that end grain. I'd go so far as to suggest that masking and pre-finishing the end grain with epoxy isn't a bad idea at all. But for this use get some thin laminating resin. Apply the resin then hit it with a heat gun. Warming the resin and wood thins the epoxy to a water like consistency and it will really soak in and seal the end grain super well.

In fact if you want a super durable "oil" finish you might try the same trick on the outside wood. Try it on a test slab of walnut or similar wood to learn the tricks. But basically it involves putting on the epoxy, heat it so it turns super watery then rub the excess away using more heat as needed to encourage most of it to come off on the paper towels. Two or three applications this way and you might just have a super durable and super low maintenance finish. I've done it but it isn't quite an oil finish. You'd need to try it on some scrap or cheap rifle to see if it is what you want. If you try this be warned that the heat speeds up the curing. So you want to start with a good long working time resin and even with that in mind WORK FAST with the rifle stock. You want the heat to thin the resin and make it soak in. But you're cutting your working time from up to as much as 2 hours down to more like 10 to 15 minutes with the heat gun.

If you do any of this keep in mind the usual safety protocols. Both the polymerized tung oil and epoxy should be kept of your skin. And while the fumes from the tung oil and low odor paint thinner are not that bad the heated up epoxy is FREAKIN' DEADLY. It doesn't smell much but the fumes are very hard on your system. So outdoors or at least in a well ventilated area only. NOT IN YOUR LIVING AREA!

And avoid skin contact with the resin as much as possible. I'M NOT KIDDING! A buddy developed epoxy dermatitis and later on could not even be near any that was being mixed up without getting a killer headache. SO BE CAREFUL! ! ! Old full coverage "painting" clothes and nitrile gloves are pretty much a must.
 
r106 said:
What about using Linseed oil instead of Tung?
Click to expand...

If you go with linseed use the boiled linseed and not the raw. The raw takes literally months or even years to finally polymerize to a film. So it basically always feels wet to the touch. It will also never raise a sheen. The boiled linseed still takes a long time to polymerize from the oxygen and UV and warmth but even in cool dark conditions it'll harden up in a week to 10 days.

It's also less scratch and scuff resistant than tung oil.

That's a good point about the big box tung oil finishes. For example Minwax tung oil furniture finish is largely solvent with just a little tung oil. It also reeks like a sweaty yak. The Lee Valley polymerized tung oil is like perfume by comparison. And on top of this the thicker honey like LV oil cures up hard sooner and builds faster due to the added consistency.
 
before you put your finish on, you should seal the stock. This will help to keep it from taking up moisture and warping.
I use a mixture of three parts acetone or naphtha (either will work) and one part of Wood Shield Marine Spar Varnish (available at Home Hardware)
This mixture is very thin, and will be deeply drawn into the wood, and will dry fast. Apply as much as the wood will take, make sure you get lots in the barrel channel and inletting.
Any type of finish will go on over this. I like to use tung oil, but others will work.
 
Wow a lot of knowledge there.
The stock will come from Boyds completely raw. The oil you apply will likely give you plenty of colour without staining . If you do stain think less is more! Consider using Brownells French Red. It will make the grain pop and it is the closest you will come to that rich red coloured pre 64 stock that is so desirable.
Like the rest said Tung oil or boiled linseed and some where between 4 and 6 coats.

I always give er a good paste wax finish once the oil has dried cause here on the wet coast you just can't get enough water protection. On the inletted portions I use Thompson's water seal to prevent swelling from the monsoons encountered here in BC
 
I can't comment on new stocks and using conditioner or any of that, but I've refinished two stocks now with tru oil, as well as some knife handles, and I'm very pleased with the result. You can get a nice durable, beautiful lustre if you work your way through the grits between coats of tru oil (or even better, sand right after applying the tru oil, creating a slurry to help fill pores in the wood naturally), and finish with a high grit (1000+) before hand polishing.

But, my favourite finish was an old A5 that needed TLC, I stripped and sanded the stock down, finished with some 0000 steel wool, did the 5 or 6 coats of tru oil, and finished with 1-2 coats of Tom's 1/3 military wax. After buffing it out, I ended up with a beautiful satin finish without having to "dull" it with steel wool. The finish was similar to the satin finish on my Browning X-Bolt.

Lighting is not great here, but you get the idea:

The comparison pic shows a Weatherby Mk V top, the re-finished A5 middle, and X-Bolt bottom.

As a PS, tru oil is just Tung oil but with additives and thinners to help with curing and shine AFAIK.
 
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