Well when it comes to the how to finish and seal a stock , there are as many different ways as there are stars in the sky .
each area of the world seems to have their own idea of how to do this .
If you were reproducing a specific style of rifle then it would be best to understand how that rifle would have been originally done .
But here we have a complete different set of values .
So to answer your question basically yes , depending on what type of finish you want to achieve .
You want to seal all the open and end wood . This means under the lock , triggers , nose cap ,barrel channel , under the butt plate ,.
Now what to use to do this ?
Well that also depends on what your doing .
Linseed oil works , and it has its plus’s and minuses . But its main draw back is that it only becomes about 20% water proof . Moisture simply can flow through it like a sponge.
It also never dries very hard and will let the stock get dented or easily scratched
Now the + to linseed is that it allows a stain to take if at some time down the road you need a repair .
Tung oils penetrate deep , they dry harder then linseed and protect the wood much better . I believe
? That their moister resistance is in the 90% area ? But I could be off on that however the also seal the wood very good and penetrate deeply . This means that if you ever need a repair , matching the original stain color , can be somewhat difficult ..
Here is what I do and as I said before there are many different ways and in fact I have recently switched over to add a process that Wyosmith uses but I think with a twist .
Now this is assuming that you have already if you stock was bare wood , whiskered , sanded whiskered sanded and burnished or boned the wood
Basically I flood the stock with linseed oil thinned with mineral spirits , let it soak in and flood it again . Then when it looks like the wood will soak up no more , I wipe it down and let it dry for 24 hours .
Pay real close attention to the areas of end grain . These will really drying the sealer coats
I then come back and add 2 more coats of strait linseed . Just hand rubbed in
Let that dry ..
Now if your doing an older type of finish say on walnut , which has large pores. Remember that depending on the walnut this will be different / black walnut is much more porous say English walnut .
What im getting at here is lets say your doing a typical European finish that was common tell about 30 years ago ?? Give or take . If that’s the case , you don’t fill the pores of the wood .
So if im doing that , I then sand the stock with 0000 wool and then put on 2 coats of Tung oil . Now normally I use the high gloss tung oil by minwax . This way if a customer wants a high gloss , I have it . If the want a low gloss or satin finish I simply re buff the tung oil after its dry with 0000 steal wool .
BUT if your after the high grade American finish seen on modern rifles and shotguns
Well after the linseed dries . I come back an wet sand with 320 grit wet dry paper . For a medium I use linseed mixed with mineral spirits just like what we started with .
The mix of the dust and oil in the as you sand fills in the pores of the wood .
Once you done wet sanding , you leave just a fine coat of oil to dry on the stock .
Once the stock has dried 24 hours , I come back and wet sand a second time .
Let that dry .
Now you stock should be perfectly smooth . All the end grain filled and sanded . If you hold the stock up in the light and then turn it in the glair you should see not little tinny pin holes or low spots where the oil has sunk down into the grain of the wood ..
At this point you can stain it if you like .
But with walnuts I normally don’t stain the wood. Well with English walnut I do add just a couple drops of red to my final oil coats to help darken the yellow of the wood some .
So if you not going to stain the wood then I go strait to a couple coats of tongue oil , each hand rubbed . While you doing this keep all rags , brushes anything that will leave lint or dust . There is no wiping down anything so make sure you have a way of holding the stock and a safe place to set it to dry .
Now what I do is take the tongue oil and using a tooth pick I just place little drops of oil on the area of the stock im working on .
Now with a clean finger , I start rubbing the oil. And spreading it out . Keep rubbing tell the oil starts to get stiff , then move the area your working on over a little. Remember that as your rubbing try to overlap your areas so you get a good even coat ..
When the oil starts to dry from the heat of your rubbing , you will see small swirls left by your finger prints . don’t worry about those , just Keep rubbing the oil , getting the surface as smooth as you can . The oil will flatten itself out unless you have gotten things real gummy and rolled the oil OR if you try and wipe the oil .
. Now once you have the first coat of tung oil on the stock , let it dry for 24 hours . Now this will depend on the drying temp so check it in a spot that’s not going to show . . If the stock is a little tacky let it dry more .
Now once dry come back with you second and last coat of tung oil and put on an even lighter coat then you did before . Let it dray for at least 48 hours before handling and you have a stock with a glass smooth finish . It can be left high gloss or buffed down to low gloss or even taken to a flate finish if you so wish
. So now you maybe asking what I used to do . Well its very much the same but I did not use linseed oils at all . So I would have to stain before applying the tung oils
This wasn’t really a problem but you do have to have you stock whiskered and burnished to a very high degree to get a nice clean finish . Which means often time burnishing the wood after staining and before oiling .
Also there is the added + of if you get damage , you can sand down through the coats of tung oil and apply the matching stain al whole lot easier then you can through tung oil which doesn’t like the stain at all . .
So to end this long answer , Ya your doing fine , just make sure you get the insides all sealed good .
Mix little mineral spirits with your tung oil so its about like water and jusy keep painting it in to that end grain tell it wont take any more
Topic: finish (Read 976 times)