Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Oil a Marlin stock

I routinely encourage people to make the test. Apply fresh, straight, polymerizing oil to one side of a board and thin it on the other side. As many equal coats as you like. When cured, cut it. Then wait a few dry days and look again. I have done it many times and many people have seen it. The solvent is filtered by the wood. Suggesting it increases penetration is an error.

Tung acts just like linseed and you cannot tell the difference without a serious lab.

a few facts:
Sheen is a function of the surface.
Oil shrinks as it polymerizes, drawing the surface tight.
To create commercial matte finishes silicone particles are added. As the oil polymerizes around the grit it permanently disrupts (and weakens) the surface.
The only good, permanent way to create sheen is rubbing the surface with mild abrasives.
Solvents gassing off create pores in the finish, affecting water resistance. Water molecules are smaller (molar mass of turpentine is over seven times water.)

Lots of chemical driers available to add at the last minute to oils. Oil no longer needs to be boiled to polymerize and curing is far more reliable. Once it starts polymerizing the clock is started on the whole container...

Tung Oil is slightly more water resistant than Linseed Oil. This is why the US Army chose it for the Springfield rifle. Tung dries with a microscopic orange peel finish so is slightly more satin than Linseed. Turpentine bonds and polymerizes with the oil so is superior to mineral spirits which just evaporates and leave the oil more porous on a microscopic level. (Look it up Art)

The food grade Flax seed oil has all the lipids and fats still in it so it is really slow drying (think years) but this is an advantage with things like Alkanet root oil where the long dry time lets it soak in more. The partially polymerized Linseed and Tung oils will dry faster and harder. I like artist stand oil to add to a varnish oil mix. Tung Oil will yellow to a lessor degree than Linseed. I like the yellowing on darker wood stocks.

I have had oil not stick to some of the super hard finishes, but either a coat of Shellac or adding a small amount of shellac to the oil or oil/varnish mix improves adhision and drying characteristics. I add Cobalt, Japan. & sometimes red lead dryers to most oil mixes. Red lead is not too toxic for contact but wear a mask when sanding.

All these finishes are best applied during a full moon while naked.

Not so. I got it from the horse's mouth a long time ago, from a guy who was there. My long gone friend was an Artificer in Army Ordnance during WWII (actually a little before, and through, the war). Artificers were guys who were attached to combat units as "gun fixers"- with trucks fitted out as mobile workshops with all the stuff for repairing small arms in the field. He described his job as mainly fixing/replacing broken stocks, rebarreling shot-out and rusted out rifles, and all the various and sundry ills that befell weapons being used in harsh conditions. The man amazed me with speed he could work at. He re-barreled my first '03 in his basement shop back in the 70's while I watched, and I doubt it took him much over half an hour.

Part of his early training was a rotation through the Springfield Armory. While there he witnessed stocks being "finished", by dunking in big vats of hot oil. He said that he was told they used whatever oil the procurement officer happened to get a good deal on- linseed or tung- and used it interchangeably.

Wow! Just wow!

I have moose to cut up and should be doing that. Been a large part of four so far and one more is likely to die this week.

Turpentine does not bond with the oil, period. It evaporates almost completely. Cleaner, more expensive, lab grade versions leave almost nothing behind. Most leave some gum and resin. without a link to your info I cannot research where your source failed, nor do I really care to. It is certainly another internet whiz.

Tung oil is absolutely not different from linseed oil in use. It is not more waterproof and in point of fact, neither is as waterproof as bare wood. Atmospheric water is attracted by the cured oil and absorbed. I have personally confirmed this with finish tests on 1" walnut cubes many hundreds of times. And neither yellows more than the other, period.

The surface is absolutely not rougher than linseed and there is no difference in sheen. That is beyond laughable, really...

Please elucidate the concept of leaving fats and lipids in oils... (note to the Department of Redundancy Department... x 2)... The important stuff is mostly fatty acids... especially linoleic acid. The word linoleum comes from the root, hint.

There is more I could comment on but you assuredly will continue rubbing one out on the next full moon...

At this point does anyone give a f uck about this topic except to argue back and forth about minutae ?

One might think that an expert gunsmith such as yourself might be interested in learning something from your betters. Guess not. Just put your head back up your, um, in the sand!

What part of not giving a f uck didn't you understand there d ickhead ?

Did you read through this whole thread just so you could get a good pissed off going? Who's the funny boy?

Unbelievable the harsh language from such a pious chick.

You’re sure involved for not giving a [bleep]. Perhaps you just don’t understand the words you’re using.

Probably the part where you fantasized about having something of value to offer. Fantasy is not part of IB's normal agenda.

I would agree, except the points being discussed are major. But I am not surprised they escaped your grasp...

Major except for the fact the topic had been pretty thoroughly covered on the first page, after that it descended into the usual campfire insult hurling pizzing contest.

Which you so cheerfully abetted. Congrats- you stuck your sausage in the meat grinder again. (Now here comes the vituporous PM full of frothing from the mouth. I was hoping for some entertainment this chilly wet Saturday morning after being up most of the night!!)

Minutiae is what separates a good job from an excellent job. The Devil really is in the details.

Good morning there ya old windbag, you seem to have done a good job with the minutae on this one. Don't you have a boat that needs varnishing ?

I actually reread the whole thread. Substance was being added in the form of correcting major errors right up until you stepped in. You have added nothing beyond your bright and cheery little personality. And another of your whine/snivel/tantrums about everybody being mean. While you forget you are the real dickhead in the thread. Absolutely nothing you wrote helped anyone finish a stock.

Thought you had the topic pretty well covered there Mr. Know-it-all guru of all things gunsmithing sir !

Now you’re getting somewhere sugar!

What a fuvck stick you are. Sad.

In the end, everything is a detail.