Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Stock Finish, True Oil vs. Minwax Antique Oil

tejano
There are several thigns you are trying to combine as one best without defining parameters potentially causing most of the issues.

In a lab (or a test in your kitchen with a powder scale and test blocks) all of the parameters can be tested.

"Warming" a finish is never a goal of mine. The color it came in is good enough, or I would not be uing it. Firearms manufacturers use stain so their wood becomes consistent in color. That is a total non-issue to me.

Oil, to my eye does not add anything to the color, compared to epoxy. It does add a look and feel as a top coat epoxy cannot get to.

Choosing finishes is not easy with all the options, but there are several things that should make a difference.
Oil does not block water vapor. Oiled wood absorbs ambient moisture faster than bare wood.

Sanded slurry finishes on open-pored wood show the mud in the holes. A test block will show it immediately. Close-grained walnut will not be affected as much as typical claro, say.

Using anything but gloss finishes weakens the finish because of the luster killers they use. It also obscures the wood.

Ray says to use what works for you, unless you caught his post where he said sanded slurry is the ONLY way to do it.

And I disagree.
art

Something I just remembered reading on a pen makers forum.

I don't know this for a fact, because I have never tried it, but some pen makers say that CA does not work good with walnut. Something about the natural oils in walnut that causes the CA to not stick in some areas, and become foggy and splotchy in others.

So anyone thinking of using CA to fill the pores on a walnut stock might want to test on a piece of scrap. You might want to stick with epoxy.

What type of wood are the bird's eye bowls made from?

I have used a LOT of CA on walnut with nary a hitch of any kind.

Stockmakers have noted CA finish will literally shrink the wood, requiring fitting the wood a few thousandths proud o fthe metal to allow for it.

All of those are made from Walnut and CA.

As far as the CA sticking, as long as the pieces are de oiled before application then they're fins. Same as Ironwood, Ebony, Cocobolo, etc.

I wipe them with acetone, let it dry for 30 seconds, then apply the CA

Never had shrinking, fogging, crackling, etc with any of them.

Uh, I am a dinosaur. If the wood has the character of a sapwood fence board, I'll stain it with French Red Stain, or a mix of powered water stains in the color of choice and raise the grain at the same time, then strike off the whiskers. If it is unusually porous, I'll seal it with Art's Gun Stock Filler. After a good 220 grit sanding I soak it with half and half turpentine and marine spar varnish until the wood absorbs all it can. Set that mess aside for a week to dry. Then begin sanding with Wet or Dry 320 grit pads dipped in the thinned varnish mix. Wipe it cross grain and set aside for a day or two and repeat until all the little dimples are filled and the thick varnish mess disappears. Then I switch to 400 grit and start over. I only use steel wool on pots and pans. After another week to cure, the finish goes on, by hand rubbing. Each coat is reduced with 600 grit and wet sanding with a half and half mixture of turpentine and what ever stock finish I'm using (Lin-Speed, Tru Oil, Pro-Custom Oil, etc.) until it looks like the wood could be used for a telescope mirror. Then comes the felt pads and rotten stone to get the proper matte finish. Done. Only stocks of "A" grade to Exhibition grade walnut are worthy of all that work however, plain walnut gets a bit less attention.

Now I just use laminated stocks and give them a quick coat of the thinned varnish sealer, a quick sanding and a spray of Gun Sav'r Custom Oil Finish. There's so much resin glue in the laminate stocks they don't absorb sealers and finish as well, after all they're plywood, and I'm getting too old for all this rigmarole.

Thinning leaves open pores and bubbles in the finish. The gasses have to have somewhere to go as it evaporates, and that leave's pathways back into the wood for moisture.