Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Proper oil finish question

Took my gun down in order to clean it. I would like to oil the wood properly and would like suggestions. Boiled linseed, tung, mixture of both? This was one area of critique when I posted pics on the Image Gallery on the 18th. What exactly did you guys see? Though I can’t find true provenance Gus Habich Sporting Goods (original consignee of the gun) was a gunsmith and nickel plater. I found some old articles about it. Maybe this is where my plating job came from. Haven’t been able to find a way to locate any records.

If Gnoahhh see this and chimes in, I would take his suggested route. He is definitely gifted in this respect. Decades of experience has served him well.

See also sticky above; Misc. Good Info/What you need to know before refinishing wood...

Probably doesn't need re-oiling. I would get a can of good paste wax and wax it good and proper. When I say good, I don't mean Birchwood-Casey stock wax either. The stuff is better than nothing but I would make a bee-line for Renaissance Wax, Tre-Wax, Butcher's Wax, etc. It'll make any piece of wood look better, but most importantly will impart a degree of protection that can't be accomplished with mere oils.

Don't overlook the steel parts when waxing it also. A good paste wax is wonderful stuff for preventing rust too.

As for tung versus linseed oil, close your eyes and pick one. There's no practical difference between the two, either in quality of finish or looks.

I'll defer to gnoahhh's expertise, but just so you have another option...

Birchwood-Casey now has a low-sheen/satin version of their Tru Oil called "Genuine Oil" -- I've used it twice now and have been very pleased with the look -- no more cutting back the excessive but typical Tru Oil high gloss sheen.

Old No7

Thank you, I will absolutely take that advice. Also, there is another number stamped in the buttstock above the s/n. It’s 39. I don’t recall seeing reference to this in any threads. Any meaning to this number?

Who knows? Probably just a production/inspection code.

In any manufacturing environment in the analog-era, every department head experimented with unofficial means of tracking productivity and as such meaningless little markings can be found on everything from Ford flat head generator pulleys to Zebco fishing reels which are completely meaningless except to somebody who was tracking their progress through their own little world.

no more 0000 steel wool?
i always blended BLO 25 % with tru oil to tone down the gloss

Yes, Gary has mentioned previously steel wool can and will leave flecks and/or fragments behind that in time will appear as a rust spot beneath your finish.
Brass wool will not rust or leave a mark. That's the reason no steel wool.

Ok, while some of these responses will produce very good results, why not go for the current state of the art in finishes? If you read Westbrook's "Professional Stockmaking", you will find that 3 of his 5 pro stockmaker references use Permalyn for a lot of very good reasons. If you use sealer with the finish, the result is a thick, extremely clear finish which requires #0000 steel wool to dull. If you use ONLY the sealer, then a very clear, but non-glossy finish can be had "in-the-wood". Buff to the the desired sheen. The big advantage I have seen in the two pieces that I have used this stuff on is that it dries CLEAR, and does not hide all that beautiful walnut. Even stocks and scraps that I though were extremely plain have revealed good grain and figure. This stuff just doesn't turn dark like the older oils, and you can get as thick or thin a finish as desired by adjusting the application.

Finishing and hammering scraps seems to show good durability compared to any of the old oils.

So far as wax goes, anyone who has tried and used B-C Microcrystalline Gunstock Wax won't agree that it is junk. Warm the stock with a hair dryer first, and hand buff to remove excess.The water protection from a quick shower is excellent. Haven't used it on metal. I prefer car wax, applied on warmed metal, and it seems ok for the Gulf Coast humidity.

That's all well and good if the intent is to finish a new piece of wood or completely refinish an old one. My take on the OP's query is that he wants to preserve what's there while sprucing it up a little. Hence my suggestion to go straight to a good paste wax.

Then there's the age old debate regarding the use of finishes that simply were not available 100 years ago when tarting up an old gun or recreating an old gun. I shan't go there as y'all might imagine how I feel about that.

I have yet to see a product from Birchwood-Casey that impressed me. Mayhaps they changed the formula for their gun wax since I last tried it, and if so swell. B-C's marketing ploy of putting their little blue and white bottles on the racks of every Mom and Pop gun shop in the U.S. is genius. That doesn't necessarily mean their products are hands down the best in their field.

As for applying car wax to any surface on a gun, don't. Even if relegated to just the steel (which in theory is fine and dandy), the silicone molecules in it can't help but migrate onto the wood surfaces- especially if the thing is handled (and who doesn't handle their guns). Said contaminants that are great for causing rain water to bead up on the fender of a Chevy will play Billy Hell if ever a re-finishing is called for on a gun stock. I wish everybody who recommended car wax (and/or WD-40 too for that matter) as a protectant had to at least once be frustrated by fisheyes in a new finish so as to be shut of the idea.

Likewise for painting cars. This stuff too will "play Billy Hell" with new paint. Stay away from anything with silicone in the ingredients!

Ok, my bad. I haven't used silicone wax since the silicone free versions came out 20+ years ago. So amend that to omit silicone.