JJ--Back to my original answer to your question. I have never had a problem with steel wool leaving pieces of metal in the stock but I use the steel wool for whiskering and then had used a tack cloth to remove all the standing dust so perhaps the tack cloth removed some small steel splinters. I have only done about 6 stocks but I still stand by the Flecto Verathane as a finish. If you followed some of the advice given previously, you can see how applying 20 coats of tru oil and then waiting a day or two for things to dry, you could wait a month of two before the thing was completely dry and finished. The Verathane dries quickly and can be applied easily without fear of drips etc. You must let it dry however, in a place with no dust as dust will adhere to any finish while it is still wet. The comment about using 400-600 grit paper is also right on. The very fine paper cuts so little wood that it really only takes just a few minutes to use the 400-600 paper and it will impove your finish. Look at it like this--each finer paper should remove all the traces of scratches or imperfections left by the prior sand paper. Try the Flecto, you'll like it.
