Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Trouble with Tru-Oil

I've been refinishing a M70 featherweight stock for a friend. It was coming along well, but lately I'm having a bit of a problem. I apply a light coat of tru-oil spray,rub it in with my fingers and let it sit overnight. The next day I sand lightly with some 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper,wipe with tack cloth and do another coat. It looks great for a bit, but once it dries there are sull streaks all through it. You don't see them from a couple feet away bit if you look close there are definite thin,dull streaks, almost like it didn't get any oil. I've tried thinner/thicker coats, same results.

I started off with the liquid Tru-oil, but it seemed a bit thick and didn't dry nice and smooth,so I switched to the aerosol. I've done probably 8-10 coats so far,and I'd like to be done with this thing. Any idea's of what I'm doing wrong? I stripped and sanded it before starting, did one coat,let it dry and then wet sanded with the oil. Since then, I've jsut been doing as described. Any help would be most welcome.

It could be just the grain of the wood, I have a French Walnut stock I did, and the winter growth area is real tight grianed/pored, as most wood, the summer growth more opened pored as most wood, so till you fill all the pores it will looked streaked, and the closed/tight pored wood will start to layer on top, get a glossy look, and the open pored will still be absorbing the finish and looking dull, now is the time that seperates the men from the ametures!! You have to take off the layered coats off of the closed pore areas. and still keep adding finish fo the open pored areas. So make sure the finish is real dry and no tacky or gummy feeling. Take some real mineral sperits on a 0000 steel wool pad and rub the stock down to get rid of the surplus on the tight grained areas with out cutting into the wood, less is better, and a real light touch to the rub down.. then wipe off any excess, and let dry for a day or 2, stock must feel dry, no tacky feeling. THEN through away the spray on and get some liquid Tru Oil, or real linseed oil, not boild linseed oil, mix 2 parts Linseed oil to 1 part mineral spirits, put a few drops in the palm of you hand and rub it in all over the stock, add mixture as needed to keep a wet look, less is better, let soak in for a few hours, then with a damp cheese cloth of mineral spirits give a light rub to get any excess off, so the stock does not feel gummy anywhere, let dry for a day or too, in a warm place helps or a sunny window. the key here is to let dry, can not rush this, repeat untill all the wood pores are fill, then one or two coast with a long try time in between. An oiled finished stock is a thing of beauty but also a thing of work and patients!!! Until you get the thin top coat all over it will looked streaked because of the pores not all being filled. When done with a gloss/semi gloss look, the hard/soft growth will have a different accent as the light is on them , I wish I could take a pic of my stocks to show that

Bingo dingo! (Baaad, couldn't stop myself)

That was the trouble with my first attempt with Tru-Oil (in the bottle), not letting it dry long enough between applications. That and probably putting on too thick a coat. Actually it doesn't dry but polymerizes, short molecules react with oxygen in the air and link into long molecules. The surface reacts first and it takes time for oxygen to diffuse through the polymerized surface to the bottom of the coat. I probably compounded the problem by putting fresh "oil" over not fully polymerized coats which blocked oxygen from reacting with the under coats. The resulting finish wasn't fully hardened and was pulled out in places when steel wooled, leaving a streaky appearance. Boiled linseed and tung work that way too.

Unfortunately the cure is to remove the uncured finish, let whatever remains on the wood to set up completely, and begin again.

I've been refinishing a M70 featherweight stock for a friend. It was coming along well, but lately I'm having a bit of a problem. I apply a light coat of tru-oil spray,rub it in with my fingers and let it sit overnight. The next day I sand lightly with some 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper,wipe with tack cloth and do another coat. It looks great for a bit, but once it dries there are sull streaks all through it. You don't see them from a couple feet away bit if you look close there are definite thin,dull streaks, almost like it didn't get any oil. I've tried thinner/thicker coats, same results.

I started off with the liquid Tru-oil, but it seemed a bit thick and didn't dry nice and smooth,so I switched to the aerosol. I've done probably 8-10 coats so far,and I'd like to be done with this thing. Any idea's of what I'm doing wrong? I stripped and sanded it before starting, did one coat,let it dry and then wet sanded with the oil. Since then, I've jsut been doing as described. Any help would be most welcome.