I just bought a rifle with a pretty piece of wood on it, it is stained but does not appear to be sealed. How is this stuff,

PERMALYN STOCK FINISH & SEALER

available from Brownells, in 4 ounce bottle for $8.00 or so, is 4 ounces enough for one regular rifle stock?

That stuff is fantastic, but it is meant to be put on stripped or new wood. If you look at the other stock-finishing thread you will see some stocks done with the stuff. That is more than enough.
Brent

If you truly have a pretty piece of wood, I would strip it and give it a good hand rubbed oil finish. In a nutshell, once stripped, I always start by sealing the wood inside and out with a thinned spar varnish, then fill the pores, stain, and rub in the oil finish that will show off the grain (you can search the archives for explicit directions).

If you're talking about SEALING the stock versus "finishing" the stock, you'll want something to go into the wood, not just on the surface.

I've managed to seal difficult pieces of wood by stripping them then submersing them in a mixture of 50-50 Naptha and spar varnish. After doing so once, wipe it off completely, let it dry, and do it one more time. It helps if you let the stock dry out and heat up in a hot attic just before you do it. Then apply your finish. I'll guarantee that stock will never move even exposed to constant moisture.

bobski
Have tested many finish programs such as you suggest and in addition to being a good way to expose yourself to a bunch of nasty chemicals the finish is far from waterproof and well behind any number of other finishes. Not that it will not make a perfectly satisfactory finish, just that many are far better from the waterproofing aspect.

Surprisingly, finishes like this do not add as much weight to the stock (once the naptha is well-dried) as many would think. The wood acts as a filter and prevents the finish from going very deep... Only the naptha really soaks in.
art

A naptha MSDS for those considering such a venture...
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/NA/naphtha.html

Obvioulsy what you do and where you live gives you a much better opportunity to know and test. In addition to what you mention about Naptha, I'm personally highly sensitive to it and working with it is a challenge. But what system do you know that goes INTO the wood and seals any better than the silica in the varnish? I know this method is not a "finish", it's a sealer that goes into the the pores of the wood as far as the pores sill allow penetration of the silica because of size. Finish with anything that turns you one, but what about sealing? If you put a waterproof finish on top the wood in addition to the sealing wouldn't that be better?

bobski
Many points with your questions... Silica fills holes and has nothing to do with sealing. It is a filler. The silica is held in place by oil and varnish and that is where the "leakage" comes from. The naptha does little to ease the difficulty in penetration that silica has. It thins the resin(s), oils and waxes that virtually all varnishes (and most "oil finishes") are blended from....

My method involves slow-cure epoxy applied to a warmed stock for a sealer and an oil finish atop that. It is virtually waterproof. Varnishes are only marginal as sealers.
art