Sitka's advice is good. You can heat the finish too, wrapping a heating blanket set on high around the can works well. I would just change two things. I would just finish the barrel channel the same as the rest of the stock, theres no advantage I can see that spar varnish would offer over tru-oil. The other thing I would do differently is stripping, I would skip the citristrip, I don't put water on any wood I'm going to finish. I would use something with methylene chloride and rinse with denatured alcohol. I would strip the checkering too, I think leaving it is asking for problems, and its no big deal to finish it with tru-oil. Just apply the tru-oil to the checkering with the rest of the stock and scrub it out with a fine nylon brush before you wipe the finish down. The wood seems to be nicely figured, you could stain it to bring more of the figure out, you seem like you would like that. good luck Tim
