Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing This stock finish is gonna kill me- frustrated at process

I certainly agree that using many of easily applied wood finishes such as lemon oil, Pledge etc etc are giving the user nothing more than instant shine. They offer no genuine abrasion resistance, moisture protection or UV barrier. They are just cheap and easy. But the statement that “ Mineral oil is a petroleum byproduct and we know how incompatible petroleum products are with wood “ is not entirely correct. These days we are at the mercy of ever evolving EPA health and environmental standards so quite a bit of petroleum based coating components are being phased out so housewife’s don’t get dried and chapped hands, or unpleasant fumes. In a perfect EPA world kids will be able to drink varnishes and paints who cares if the product retains any form of endurance

Back to rubbing oils, varnishes and paints used on wood substrate. Generally speaking varnishes or rubbing oils contain three primary components, drying oils, resins and solvents. Drying oils: Polymers are the dominant drying oils these days and most cheaper varnishes and oils contain this and it’s petroleum based. Better varnishes and rubbing oils are vegetal such as tung, linseed/flax seed oil, fish oil even walnut oil. Resins which regulate hardness and color of varnishes and oils include polyester ( petroleum based ), various tree resins, alkyds in most paints, and phenols also petroleum based. And finally solvents the most common being mineral spirits or Stoddards solvent another petroleum product. With paints there is also pigments, leveling compounds and a few other proprietary things.

Varnishes and especially rubbing oils there is a small % of metallic salt driers and ultraviolet filters, a critical component for exterior or marine work. Anyway most of the easily found varnishes and rubbing oils, polyurethane and acrylics consist of polymers all of which are derived from petroleum. The shift in the coating labs today is toward more synthetics such a the polyurethanes and others. It keeps cost down and is easier to compound. They are easier to apply, more forgiving, harder so better abrasion resistance but urethanes have a life cycle that eventually results in delamination, yellowing and crazing. Once these synthetics start breaking down stripping is the only option whereas traditional long oil varnishes ( Spar ) and rubbing oils can be sanded or scuffed up and over-coated. It is also true that polyurethanes and almost all urethanes including the more toxic and expensive cross-linked products break down rapidly to UV exposure. High end cross linked urethanes like DuPont’s Imron, or U.S. Coating Awlgrip can add additional UV filters to buy time.

BTW as of today nobody has sold me on waterborne clear finishes

Rick

The final gloss on any good finish involves knocking the shine back to where you want it. They add silica dust to finishes to create matte surfaces which is not good for the life of the finish.

Pre-heating your stock then applying a wash cost of epoxy resin almost alway results in small bubbles. Not all wood species act the same. Anyway your stock is out gassing or expelling air from the heat. Common problem and one that can be avoided by not heating up the wood. For best results you do need to acclimate the resin to room temp otherwise cold on warm or visa versa will shock the resin.

Ric

I've heard that term before.....somewhere.......where was it........

Brownells sells Custom Pro Oil, a tung oil/urethane mix.

Tougher than Tru Oil. Slower drying.

DF

Art, any anyone else that wants to comment, what effect does a final wax have? For example, if i get the perfect sheen that I'm looking for and then do a top coat of wax.....how will that change the sheen?

Sorry, but heated wood, as it cools sucks epoxy into the wood and most certainly does not create small bubbles. I have applied a lot of epoxy on stocks for over 40 years.

It depends on the wax. NEVER use car wax because it has silicone which is a horrible mess to clean off if you ever need to refinish.

Most increase the sheen. Leaving the wax on and not buffing it will matte it a bit.

I rub out a final glossy coat until it's dull, then wax/buff it to restore a soft luster.

Yep, hung a stock one time in the booth at work, wasn't thinking, turned booth to bake. back in a few minutes, the stock was covered with bubbles at every grain pore opening. Always got to apply whatever your using to fill grain when using heat when the wood temperature starts to cool, not first then heating it..bad. Never did that again.

Just and update. I'm going to say that I think my Tru Oil was old. It was thick like honey. I've wet sanded the stock back to just the epoxy. I'm confident I didn't sand through the epoxy, close inspection didn't show bare wood. In any event, I've gone back with a 50/50 mix of Spar Varnish and pure Tung oil. This is going on sooooo much better. It's smoother and easier to apply. I've got 2 coats on and really liking the way it looks.

Just wanted to update where I am. For me, I'm going to say I'm never going to use Tru Oil again. I know to never say never but here I am. I bought some small 4oz mason jars with lids where I'm keeping my small amount of mix.

i use Minwax Antique Oil and a piece of 0000 bronze wool for each coat. when i am done, then Polyurethane Oil and Mineral Spirits (3:1) for about 3 or 4 coats (use 0000 bronze wool after each coat is dried). then i use SC Johnson's Paste Wax.

1944 '98 Mauser in 8x57






'16 Spanish Mauser in 6.5x55