Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Stock refinishing.

I have an old Remington 510 Targetmaster that I want to refinish the stock. It's has a walnut... which oil would be best to use tung,lin seed or???

Tung oil or Teak oil....Would NOT suggest linseed oil under any circumstances. I have used both Tung and Teak hundreds of times on stocks and it works well when sanded in to fill the pores. Before I apply the oil, I will put two coats of Thompson's Water Seal on the stock, which will waterproof it a hundred times better than just applying tung or teak oil. I sand in with 320, 400, 600, 800....1000 grit too if I want a real pretty sheen. Two sanded in coats before moving on to the next finer grit.

Godogs; the Thompsons water seal does interfere with the stock taking in the oil? Sounds like something I will have to try next time.

Please name any "Teak Oil" finish that does not include linseed oil...

Tung and linseed oils are virtually interchangeable with no differences in waterproofing, strength, or hardness.

Because tung is not used for food the best oil is used for finish where linseed has many more uses and the best stuff is used for many different things. Because it acts like every other oil as a finish it is used interchangeably with linseed by almost all manufacturers.

Tung is simply a hyped up oil and no better than linseed oil when the same grade of oil (assigned by the same standards... a whole other issue) is used.

No oil is even close to waterproof and all will absorb atmospheric water faster than bare wood.

Thompson's Water Seal is a very bad joke. It uses lots of advertising dollars instead of lots of oils in the finish. It is more solvents than anything else and early formulations were banned in many places because they had so little solids in them. It is not even close to an average finish for any purpose.

Nothing worse on large-pored wood than packing the pores full of sanding mud... Old-timers got away with it for several reasons. They tended to use very tight-grained wood which is harder to get and more expensive these days; it has very little room to pack the mud. They also had difficulty getting oil and none was wasted so their oil was often partially cured and they had to really work it to get it into the wood, hence hand-rubbed oil finishes. There are far better ways to do it today.

If it is not badly dinged it would probably be easier to use Formby's Furniture Refinisher. Rather than removing the finish it allows you to clean the crud off the top and then move the finish around a bit to fill in the weak spots. Oil finishes can be applied on top of the cleaned up stock.

If instead you need to completely strip the stock a spar varnish finish with increasing oil content gives a reasonable finish that looks very good.

The original finish is a thinner varnish and would be best duplicated by an oil-based varnish applied lightly.

This

http://www.sutherlandwelles.com/original.html

Exactly...good product there. Thompsons water seal seals off the pores but does not fill them in...sanding in teak or tung will do that, plus add depth or chattoyance to the appearance. The thompsons just adds another degree of water resistance to the finish.

I have found that teak can be finished to a higher sheen than the tung. Either will do fine if you are wanting a satin finish. The product mentioned above is not pure tung oil. Its polymerized....pure tung or teak needs drying agents mixed in for obvious reasons....it would never dry....just gum up.

Sorry the other gentleman disagrees with me...he's entitled to his opinion just like me. It's worked on a few hundred stocks for me though. I do agree that an oil finish will not protect as good as a polymerized finish though...but the original poster implied he wanted oil, so that's my answer to him. I don't like varnish products though...not the same as poly finishes in any way. If the op wants a poly finish, there are plenty of good ones to choose from.

If you want a hand rubbed oil finish, you can mix PURE tung oil with a polyurethane and a solvent and work it in. It protects surprisingly well but not as well as an epoxy based finish.

I finished two boards using the method above on one and and the same thing but substituting boiled linseed oil on the second. I put them in the yard so the sprinklers would get them every other day or so. The tung finish did wear and protect noticeably better than the linseed oil. As for the quality of the oils, I have no idea how they compared. I used Hope brand and Ace Hardware brand.
I had to special order the Hope from the paint store to get unadulterated tung oil.

I have finished many stocks. The only thing I use is MinWax Antique Oil Walnut. Finishes like glass. If your interested on How Too PM me.

Dennis, Polymerized tung oil is exactly what you are referring to in your comment....Good stuff. That's where they got the "POLY" from in the name... Tru Oil is very close to what you are mentioning, but it is a mixture of several oils that are polymerized.

I am sure you do a decent job finishing your stocks with your methods. Old time stock finishers likewise did a very good job with far more limited materials and access to those materials.

Unfortunately, your methods are easily proven to be decidedly inferior to other methods. It is extremely easy to prove it to yourself, if you wish to.

Sanding in mud with your finish does not improve the depth nor chatoyancy of the finish, period, and easily proven. Make a sample board with different methods of finish application and look for yourself. An open-pored piece of walnut will prove glaringly how inferior mud in the finish is. I have helped a large number of people over the years make samples and no one has done a sanded slurry finish and thought it close to as good as clean fillers.

Thompson's as I said is a poor materials choice due to a serious lack of solids, which is what is needed to fill pores. Putting all those solvents in the wood will cause them to come out over time and telegraph every pore as the oil shrinks... That is a simple fact. Oil alone will telegraph, but Thompson's will make it worse.

Thompson's does not increase water resistance as a finish over any other make or brand of finish. In many tests it has proven to be the worst product on the market and was outlawed for sale in CA and several other states due to the very high VOC levels. Simple, and very easy to prove.

Which "Teak" are you talking about? It is obvious you have very little understanding of what finishes are. There is no such thing as "teak oil" made from anything other than linseed and tung oil, usually interchangeably and together at variable cuts based on the finish oil market. There is no way to find a difference except between brands and formulas because it is the same stuff.

You make it sound like you think "Teak Oil" is a seperate oil. Further, you do not have any idea what polymerization is. It is not the "poly" various poly varnishes.

Polymerization as it relates to finish is the curing of various organic compounds by means of long chains interlocking as they (usually) oxidize. This is a grossly simplified description and I would be happy to provide all the detail you would like.

Poly in finishes is short for polyurethane which comes from polymers being held together by urethane chains... that whole polymerization thing mentioned earlier.

It is the oil polymerizing that creates a finish. That polymerization can be caused by two common methods; heating or with added catalysts. Heavy metal catalysts were originally used but have been mostly replaced with safer alternatives. The heating was done by boiling.

Heating will cause oil to start polymerizing, but it gets very thick very fast and cannot be applied easily, which is the main reason for newer catalysts.

Boiled linseed oil as sold commercially is simply a very inferior grade product which has little use as finish. To retard polymerization they have to add chemicals, but they affect the final finish. Without the retardants the stuff would cure in the can before you got it.

Again, I have no doubt you like your finishes, but there are far better, easier ways of applying oils.
art

This is patently incorrect on several levels.

Dennis
How many of your stocks get left out in the sun and rain 24-7 for extended periods of time? Pure oils are the only way to go for decent finishes.
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permalyn

Permalyn is an excellent choice or chem pak custom oil in satin

chem pack custom oil

mod 70 in permalyn


marlin 336 before after with chem pak cstom oil

And there you have your answer Jr03. Southwind has just recommended two of the best finish products available. I've personally used the Chem-Pak Pro Custom Oil & the Permalyn Sealer, and it gives excellent performance. Just follow the instructions.

Used em both and got good results....great products.

Nope....wrong

I have used Minwax Antique Oil, Pro Custom Oil and GB Linspeed at different times to refinish gunstocks. All three gave satisfactory results, for a quick and easy finish I have used hardware store rattle can spray lacquer. Lacquer is easy to work with as it is fast drying, apply light coats and allow to dry for 3-4 hours between coats. Rub with 0000 steel wool between coats, when you are satisfied with the finish apply a last coat. When dry apply paste wax using 0000 steel wool as your applicator pad, let the wax dry then buff with a microfiber cloth.

Another option:

I have not had the courage to try the "Armor All finish" yet...can't bring myself to do that....yet.

Look it up on youtube. The finish is gorgeous...but I have no idea regarding its durability. The end result is one of the prettiest eggshell satin sheen finishes I've seen....just don't know how it would hold up.

Google "tru oil armor all finish" and it will pop up with dozens of articles on it.

Last post on this thread for me...

If oil is "polymerized" as you state it means it is cured oil. So Tru-Oil is already polymerized in the container?

There are several other incorrect aspects, but I will leave that alone. Have a great day!
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